


Magically Talented

by TheGlassFloor



Series: Marvin McMagicspell [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Friendship, Gen, High School, Non-Graphic Violence, Suburban Gothic, Teenagers, magical powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:34:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 27,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26180485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGlassFloor/pseuds/TheGlassFloor
Summary: A small group of friends at an ordinary high school share a secret: they all have magical powers.Marvin wants to use his magic to help him climb the social ladder.His aunt Marissa wants him dead.
Series: Marvin McMagicspell [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1962031





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a YA modern fantasy book I wrote when I was younger. I finally decided to publish it on AO3 after all these years, just so it's out there in the world. I left it mostly unedited; if nothing else it's a personal nostalgia trip for me at this point. It's the 2nd in a series of 3 books total that I completed. You don't have to have read the 1st book to understand what's going on in this one, and I consider the 1st book to be mostly unreadable anyway--little more than a springboard for the 2nd and 3rd books. Just take my word for it. 
> 
> If anything here seems like it was, uh... BORROWED from Charmed... Well, that's because it was. I took the basic concept of 3 sisters with magical powers and turned it into a story about a group of friends in high school instead.
> 
> And so, without further ado...
> 
> MARVIN McMAGICSPELL #2
> 
> MAGICALLY TALENTED

There wasn't much meaning in life until magic came along. At least not for Marvin.

Marvin Mannix. That's his name. Really Marvin McMagicspell, but nobody knows that and nobody can prove that without revealing everything. But that's okay. It has to stay secret anyway. Secret to everyone. Everyone, that is, except the Magic Makers.

The Magic Makers. That's what they call themselves. Four magically empowered teenagers. And one talking pigeon.

First there's Marvin, the one who started it all. Then there's his best friend, Kirk Hunter, and Kirk's sister, Annette Hunter. And there's Courtney Mancina, Annette's best friend. And, the talking attic bird, Abey. The Magic Makers.

It all started when Marvin's grandfather, Mark Mannix, died of a heart attack. Or at least they said it was a heart attack. Marvin and Abey both knew that it was not natural causes that put Mark to rest, but rather the cunning of his witch stepsister, Marissa.

Why did she kill him you ask? Simple. She wanted the magic. The great McMagicspell magic kept safely up in the attic of Mark's house. The _ McMagicspell Book of Phenomena _ with all the magic spells in it. The magic ingredients that covered the shelves on the walls all around the attic. The silver box which contained the five powerful magic necklaces. She wanted those things. She wanted them bad.

Back then Marvin Lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia. But then, after Grandpa Mark died, Marvin and his parents, Martin and Margo, moved away from Fredericksburg and into Mark's house in Baltimore, Maryland.

And because of this, the magic remained safe from Marissa.

At least for a while.

Marissa stuck around, and when she found out that Marvin had been using the magic, and when she saw what sorts of things she could do with it if she had it, she went for it.

It would have been a disaster had it not been for the Magic Makers' magic powers. Marissa bewitched them, and tied them up. And then, when she conjured up a portal to another dimension, a dimension that she planned to send her bound prisoners to, they thought it was all over. However, they managed to outsmart Marissa, and she ended up sent away to the dimension herself. But she vowed that she would return. And that was why the Magic Makers needed to stay together. They knew what sort of things Marissa could do and they were pretty aware of how important it was to have powers to protect themselves.

Besides, having powers was just plain cool.

Each of the Magic Makers has a different power. Marvin has the power of psychokinesis, or PK. What that is is the ability to influence objects beyond one's reach and produce movement in the objects. In other words, you look at something and make it move. Pretty basic, but also powerful.

Kirk has the power to freeze time. He can literally make the entire earth stop with just a touch of the wrists. Sounds awesome, doesn't it? It seems like a person with that power can do anything But it, like all of their powers, has limits.

Courtney? She has the power to make herself invisible. And Annette is the one with the power to levitate. She can make herself weightless and float in the air. It's difficult to control, though. But, she was told that with time and practice, her powers would grow. All of theirs would.

Which was why it was important that they all met together that evening.

* * *

"Marvin!"

"Yes? What is it?"

"Maarvvvinnnnn!!!!

"What? I hear you! What do you want?”

"The fifth necklace, Marvin."

"Yeah? What about the fifth necklace?"

"You must give..."

"I must what?"

"You must give the fifth necklace..."

"Yes? Go on."

"You must give the fifth necklace to--"

* * *

"Surprise surprise!"

Marvin opened his eyes.

"Aaahh!"

"Whoa! Marvin, man! You need a breath mint!”

Marvin was outside of his house, on the front porch. He was laying down on the porch swing, and Courtney was leaning down over him, with Kirk and Annette standing next to her. The night was dark, but the light of the full moon that hung overhead was just enough for him to see his friends.

"What are you guys doing here?" Marvin asked.

"Hello?" Courtney said, straightening up. "You told us to get here before midnight."

Marvin sat up and glanced at his wristwatch. It was 11:55. Just five minutes until midnight. Marvin had been waiting for his friends out on the front porch, but had fallen asleep. And, he had been having the dream again.

In his dream, a voice seemed to call out to him, and it kept saying something about the fifth necklace. He had had the dream a few times before, and each time, it ended before he had a chance to make sense of it. It was starting to get on his nerves.

"Right" Marvin rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Right. Sorry. Come on.” Marvin got up and led his three friends into the house.

"So, what are we supposed to do?" Annette whispered as they stood there in the dark foyer.

"You don't need to whisper," Marvin said. "My parents are fast asleep. They won't hear you.”

"But they could wake up if we're too loud," Kirk reasoned.

"Nah." Marvin turned on the lights. "I slipped 'em a little Pepper of Sleep. They'll be out until sunrise."

“Sunrise?” Annette said. "I thought Pepper of Sleep wore off when you splashed water on their face.”

"It does, but Abey showed me how to make a new formula of pepper that lasts until sunrise, or until they get a water splash, whichever comes first."

"So now what?" Kirk asked.

"I guess we should go up to the attic," Marvin suggested. "Abey will probably want to see this."

Marvin, Kirk, and Courtney began to walk up the stairs to the second level. Annette didn't. She floated up, alongside the staircase.

"Hey, look everyone," Courtney joked. "It's Mary Poppins."

"Hey, I like levitating." Annette defended herself once she had reached the top and pulled herself over the side rail. "Besides, I don't have a two-story house like you, Marvin.”

"I didn't say anything." Marvin said.

"Yeah you did," Courtney said. "You just said 'anything' in that last sentence."

"Anyways,” Kirk mused.

"Let's do this already." Marvin insisted.

The kids went into Marvin's room. There was nothing really special about it, just an ordinary bedroom. The floor was wooden, the walls were papered, and the ceiling was high enough that you couldn't touch it if you jumped. There was a bookcase here, a bed there, a desk here, a dresser there, nothing special.

It was what was behind all of it that was so special

Marvin raised his hand towards the farthest wall, and said, "Appear." Suddenly, where before there was only blank wall, a door appeared. It just appeared out of nowhere, not there one second, there the next.

"That is so cool." Courtney said.

It was a rather homely door. It had a big, round hole in it, and a purple "M" painted on it below the hole, and its doorknob was missing.

The Magic Makers entered the corridor concealed behind the door and followed the corridor to a small set of stairs which led up to the attic. They opened the attic's door and went inside. And there it was. The magic. Every magic item that had been passed down from one McMagicspell to another for many generations was all there, in the attic.

Abey was there too, perched high up on one of the attic's rafters, fast asleep.

"Wake up, Abey," Marvin said, turning on the lights.

Abey's eyes fluttered open. "Huh? What? Oh, hi Marvin," he said groggily. "Hi guys. Long time no see."

Abey yawned. It was actually kinda cute seeing a pigeon yawn. It didn't seem like something a pigeon would do. But Abey was not just any pigeon. Ever since Grandpa Mark had put a spell on him that gave him the ability to speak, he had seemed a lot more human than fowl.

"How much longer?" Annette inquired.

Marvin checked his watch. "Just a minute and a half."

"Okay, guys," Kirk said. "Get ready."

Nearly midnight on a full moon. Not just any ordinary get-together. It was re-transferring time.


	2. Chapter 2

See, here's the deal. Before, when Marvin went to Fredericksburg High School, he was pretty much just a big nobody. But then, after they moved to Baltimore, he started going to a smaller school called Falstaff Academy, and he had friends the first day.

When Marvin first discovered the magic there up in the attic, he also found out that like him, his parents had not known about it. And, he decided that he did not want to tell them. It had been an emotional experience for poor Marty, having his father die, and Marvin was afraid that finding out about the magic, and worse, that his father had been murdered, would just be too painful for him. So Marvin decided to keep it secret.

And then there were the necklaces. Five skinny gold chains, each with a little gold "M" looped onto it. Each containing a great power. Marvin kept one for himself, and gave three of the other four to his new friends Kirk, Courtney, and Annette. In doing so, he was giving away the McMagicspell secret. He obviously trusted them a lot to do that.

To whoever wore one of the five necklaces at exactly midnight on the night of a full moon or the night of a new moon, the necklace would transfer its incredible power. The power would last for two weeks, but then it would go away and the power would need to be re-transferred, at midnight, on the next full or new moon, and then it would last for another two weeks.

And that was why they were all meeting together like this, even though it was a school night.

"Would somebody remind me why we're doing this?" Courtney said. "Because I have got like a major test tomorrow in Beology."

"Beology?" Annette questioned. "Is that how you say it?"

"Don't sweat it, Courtney," Kirk broke in. "I have the same test tomorrow. I'm sure it'll be nothing."

"We have to do this," Marvin reminded her. "Abey said that the only way our powers would grow is if we re-transfer all together. Isn't that right, Abey?"

Abey didn't answer. He'd gone back to sleep.

Courtney sent Marvin a puzzled look. "I thought you said he'd want to watch."

"Okay guys." Kirk pointed to his watch. "Only twenty seconds left until midnight."

"Okay," Marvin said. "Get ready."

The four teenagers held hands and formed a circle around the round table in the center of the room. On this table was the big, three-inch thick  _ McMagicspell Book of Phenomena _ , where all the spells were contained. Also on the table was the shiny silver box where the only remaining magic necklace was kept.

This was the only necklace that had not yet been given to anybody. Marvin had not yet chosen a wearer to give it to, so it's powers hadn't been harnessed. Because of this, none of them had any idea what kind of power it contained.

The seconds ticked off. Three...two...one…

The clock struck midnight. The power was re-transferred.

It only lasted for a couple of seconds. When it was over, the whole group felt energized.

"How cool!" said Kirk.

"That was awesome!" followed Marvin.

"It was so weird,” Annette said. "I mean, the first time, it kinda felt nasty, but this time, it actually felt kinda good. Like having an electric charge go through us. But a good one.”

“Must have been because we were holding hands," said Courtney.

"So that's it then?" Kirk asked. "We're finished?"

"Yep," Marvin answered. "We've all got powers for two more weeks."

"Cool. Well, we should probably go now."

Marvin nodded. "Yeah."

Marvin led his friends back downstairs and out onto the front porch.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow," Marvin said.

"Wait a second," said Courtney. "Come with us to the car. We have something for you."

Marvin obeyed and followed Kirk, Courtney, and Annette to Kirk's car, which was parked by the curb in front of the house.

Courtney opened the car door and took a small wrapped present out of the car and handed it to Marvin.

"Open it."

"A present for me? Hmmm." Marvin tore off the wrapping paper. It was a cell phone.

"Whoa! You guys! Why are you giving me this?"

"You gave us these necklaces, didn't you?" Kirk mentioned. "Dude, you gave us magic powers! That's big. It's only right that we give you something too."

"So," Annette explained, "the three of us pitched in and bought you this phone. It's a gift for you, our friend."

“Now we all can call each other anytime," Courtney said, pulling out her own cell phone and holding it up. At the same time, Kirk and Annette took out their cell phones and held them up.

"We've all got one now," said Annette.

"You're all the greatest friends anyone could ever ask for," Marvin declared happily. "Thank you."

Marvin watched as the three of them got into the car and drove out of sight. He felt content.

And yet, the memory of the dream kept on bothering him. It had to have meant something. What was the voice trying to say?

And who was trying to say it?


	3. Chapter 3

"Marvin!"

"What?! Where are you?  _ Who _ are you?"

"The fifth necklace, Marvin."

"What about it?"

"You have not given the fifth necklace to anyone yet, Marvin."

"So? What of it?"

"I will tell you who to give the necklace to.”

"Who?"

"You must give the fifth necklace to--"

* * *

"Marvin?"

Marvin woke suddenly.

"Aw, crap!"

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, I mean, hi Dad!"

It was the next day, after school. Marvin was in his bedroom, laying down on his bed. His father was standing to the side. He was wearing his police officer's uniform.

"Why were you sleeping?" Mr. Mannix asked. "It's only four in the afternoon. Haven't you been getting enough sleep?"

Marvin yawned. "I guess not.”

Mr. Mannix nodded. "Me neither. Believe it or not, your mom and I both woke up this morning right at sunrise. I have no idea why. And then, neither of us could get back to sleep. I'm still a little drowsy from that."

"Really," Marvin said, getting up out of bed. "Well, isn't that something. So, what did you want?"

"Actually," Mr. Mannix said, "I wanted to give you something." Mr. Mannix took out his wallet, pulled out ten one-hundred dollar bills, and handed them to Marvin.

"Wow!" Marvin exclaimed, nearly falling over. "A thousand bucks!"

"Your grandfather left you that in his will. At first we weren't going to give it to you, because we thought that we'd need it, but things are actually going a lot better than we expected. Your mom got promoted, you know."

"She did? To what?"

"She's Moonstone's chef now. She's not just a cook anymore."

"She's definitely right for the job. I think that's great.”

"Yeah. And you can use that money for whatever you want, just don't spend it all at once, okay?"

Marvin put his hand to his forehead and saluted his cop father. "Yes, sir."

"Well, I'd better be heading out now. I'm on duty again in half-an-hour."

"Bye," Marvin said.

Mr. Mannix left.

For the next few minutes, Marvin just sat there and stared at the money. He laid the bills all out in a row on the bed and just stared at them. He'd never seen more money in his life. And it was all his.

After a couple of minutes, Abey flew down from the attic into Marvin's bedroom.

"Wow! Looks like you hit the jackpot."

"No kidding. Oh, by the way, my mom got promoted recently. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"Well, I can't lie."

"You didn't," Marvin said.

"I confess. I did."

"Abey! When you told me you were going to fly over to the house of Moonstone's chef and scare him into leaving town, and then go tell the restaurant owner to promote my mom, I thought you were kidding!"

"It was easy. All I had to do was say that I was an evil talking bird spirit and that I would put a curse on them if they didn't cooperate, and they just did what I said. What can I say? I may not have magical powers like the rest of you Magic Makers, but I do have one power: the power of persuasion."

"I just can't believe you would do that."

"So sue me. I love you guys, you Mannix's. You know your mom needs that job more than that other guy did. Chef pays a lot more than cook. Your mom needs the money. Besides, the old chef has moved away to Georgia, where he'll be much closer to his family. It's better for him too."

The doorbell rang.

"Who could that be?" Marvin wondered. He quickly went downstairs and opened the front door. Kirk was standing on the porch.

Marvin smiled. "Hey, Kirk. What's up, dude?"

Kirk smiled back. "Hey, man."

Marvin and Kirk both enjoy each other's company very much. They both have a lot in common and consider the other to be his best friend.

Their appearances are similar. You can tell them apart easily, but just certain features are the same. For one thing, they both have dark hair, except Kirk's is a little bit darker, and it was shorter too, especially since he'd just recently gotten it cut. And they're both tall. One difference, though. Kirk's eyes are blue while Marvin's are brown. Also, Kirk is about a year and a month older, with a driver's license and a car.

"Come inside," Marvin said, opening the door wider.

Kirk stepped inside and Marvin shut the door.

"You can come out Abey!" Marvin shouted. "It's only Kirk."

Abey flew into the foyer and perched on a nearby table with a flower vase on it.

"Hi, Kirk."

"Hi, Abey. Marvin? What time is it?" Kirk asked.

"Just after four," Marvin answered.

"Perfect. I want to show you something."

"What?"

"You guys won't believe this," Kirk announced excitedly. "Abey, you were right. My powers are growing!”


	4. Chapter 4

Believe it or not, there are many other worlds besides our own. Worlds in dimensions that we can't get to, or even see. Worlds that can only be reached by the power of magic.

Marissa was in one of those worlds.

It was a dark, misty limbo of desolation. It seemed limitless, like it spread outward in all directions and never ended. It had a ground made out of solid rock, and it was lit by a small bit of light that seemed to radiate from the cold mist itself. It was totally empty and unappealing, like a prison, really.

Marissa had had a spell in her possession that could open the portal to this prison dimension. So far, the spell had only been used once, so she was the only one in the prison.

And man, was she dying to get out of there.

Turns out the spell could only open the portal from outside of the dimension. So she was trapped. Supposedly forever.

She'd been in the prison for a couple of weeks now. Her stomach had long since stopped crying out for food, and her throat no longer screamed for a sip to quench her burning thirst. All the things mortal humans require were no longer necessary for her in this void, boundless place. It was almost as if she was no longer human.

She still had the same black hair she'd always had, and the same cold green eyes. She still wore the black dress she had on the day she was cursed into the dimension. She was mostly the same.

Not totally the same, though. Her skin had changed color. She'd always been a white woman, quite pale, really. But now she'd grown so pale that it was as if she had never been in the sun in her life. Her skin was as white as milk, with no hint of color at all. She seemed to resemble a corpse.

Supposedly, the idea of this prison dimension was to hold its prisoners forever and ever. So, I guess, in order for that to be, they would have to live forever. And since no human can live forever, especially not in a world of nothing where no food or water or anything else for that matter can be found anywhere, the prisoner would have to become something else. Something inhuman. Something immortal.

Something terrible.

Something so awful and horrifying that it's a good thing they don't exist in our world.

At least none that anybody knows of do.

That was what she had become.

Marissa had been a witch her whole life. She was very experienced. She had practiced with many evil spells, charms, curses, and potions. Basic black magic.

With all the knowledge of the craft she had, however, nothing she could do could get her out of this prison. She was trapped. She had tried time and time again, with every single spell she knew of, and nothing had gotten her anywhere.

But on this particular day, or night, or whatever it was, since you can't exactly tell when it is when you're in a world where nothing ever happens, and it's so silent you can hear your heart beating, and it's so dark you can hardly see yourself, which is the only thing you'd be able to see anyway since nothing else is around…

Anyway, at this particular time, Marissa decided to make another attempt. Again, for what may have been the thousandth time, she was going to try to contact her dead mother.

"Mother!" Marissa pleaded "Can you hear me? Oh, mother, from beyond the grave, please answer me!"

She had tried so many times to get through, and each time, nothing had happened. Nobody answered.

This time somebody did.

Not her mother, though.

“Marissa!"

She jumped back, frightened. The voice was very loud, and it was the first she'd heard in weeks, besides her own, of course.

“Who's there?" she asked, her voice trembling.

And then...

A brilliant flash of light! Then a loud rumble, like thunder.

Then darkness again.

A figure appeared out of the shadows. It was faint at first, but as it came closer, Marissa could see it easier.

It looked like a man. Yes, it was. A strange man, though. His entire body was concealed underneath a long, black robe. Only his head could be seen. He had milky white skin, just like Marissa's. He had hair, like a human, long and black and flowing down over his large shoulders. He had all the facial features of a human, with frightening red eyes. He looked human.

Trust me. This guy was anything but human

"Who are you?" Marissa wanted to know. " _ What  _ are you?”

"My name is Centromere. I am a Chumick." He looked around and smiled. "Hmmm. Interesting place you have here."

"Ah. A servant of darkness, just like me." Marissa bowed low. "It is an honor to be in your presence, O great Chumick, Centromere.”

"Get up, you fool!" Centromere ordered. "Brown-nosing isn't allowed here. And another thing. I am nothing like you. I'm much, much worse."

"You obviously don't know who I am," Marissa argued. "Or what I am."

"Sure I do. Your name is Marissa and you're a witch."

Marissa looked puzzled. "But how?"

Centromere sighed. "It just so happens, unfortunately, that my dimension is right next to this one, and I can hear every word you say. That's why I came to tell you to shut up! You've been calling out for mommy for the past two weeks and it's getting on my nerves. Knock it off!"

“She'll answer!" Marissa insisted. "You just wait and see!"

"No she won't. She's dead."

"Of course she's dead! I know that! But, somewhere out there is a ghost who is my mother, and when she hears me, she'll get me out of here."

"You know, I never have understood witches. Just mortals that wish they could be one of us."

Marissa hung her head low. "I can't stand it here any longer.” She raised her head again and looked directly into his red eyes. "What about you?" she asked. "You crossed over from your dimension to get here. Couldn't you open a portal to my world?"

"Your world? You mean the mortal world?"

"Yes. Could you?"

"Sure. Why not? Where do you want it to lead to?"

"Baltimore."

"Baltimore? Where's that?"

"Maryland. The United States of America."

"Oh. Okay."

Centromere waved his hand. The darkness opened up and light spilled in.

Marissa froze in awe. She couldn't believe it. It seemed too easy.

"Better hurry up and jump in before it closes."

"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much! I'm out of here!"

Marissa jumped into the portal. The portal closed.

"Have a good time!" Centromere said. Then he laughed a devilishly sinister laugh.

* * *

Three seconds later, Marissa appeared in the mortal world.

Two seconds after that, she fell into deep water.

"Centromere! You idiot!" she managed to yell once she'd emerged from the water’s surface. "I didn't mean BALTIMORE HARBOR!"


	5. Chapter 5

"Okay," Kirk said, feeling jazzed. "Check this out."

Kirk put the inside of his wrists together.

Abey froze. Not just Abey, but time itself. Neither of them could see it, but just by touching his wrists like he did, Kirk had caused every single moving thing on the entire planet to stop moving.

Cars driving down roads stopped. Airplanes in the sky and ships in the sea stopped. People crossing the street in New York, kids playing soccer at a school in Oregon, a race car speeding down the race track in Indiana, monkeys swinging through trees in Africa, ladies sipping tea in England, Latinos dancing to Ricky Martin music at a party in Puerto Rico, waves rolling high in the North Atlantic, winds blowing fast in the outback of Australia, sleepers in their beds taking simple breaths...

Everything on the entire planet that was moving simply stopped moving. Every single thing froze in that one millisecond of time.

Everything, that is, except for Marvin and Kirk.

Kirk's powers are designed to freeze everything except for whoever is wearing the McMagicspell magic necklaces. Both of them had their necklaces on.

Abey didn't have a necklace.

As it had before when Kirk used his power, the end of movement brought on the end of temperature. In other words, no movement, no hot or cold.

"Whoa!" Marvin said. "That is so cool! I will never get used to that."

"It is cool, isn't it? Nothing's hot, nothing's cold, nothing's warm, nothing's cool, nothing has any temperature at all. It's like nothing else in the world.”

"I don't get it," Marvin said. "You said your powers grew. They seem the same to me.”

"They seemed the same to me too at first, but then earlier this afternoon when I was playing around with them, I noticed something extra."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Like this." Kirk snapped his fingers. Time unfroze. Temperature came back.

"You know, that's really not fair," Abey protested. "When you freeze time like that, for all I know, you could be saying something about me and I wouldn't know because I'm frozen."

"We weren't saying anything about you," Kirk assured him.

"Hey, wait a second," Marvin said. "Did you just--"

"I sure did."

Whenever Kirk freezes time, a little gold watch magically appears on his wrist. Since every other clock in the world stops at that time, this magic watch's purpose is to let him know how long time will remain frozen, which is a minute. Once the second hand completes its trip around the face of the watch, time restarts again. That's all the time it ever gives. Just a minute.

This was way less than a minute. This had only been a few seconds.

"You unfroze time early?" Marvin asked.

"Yep. All I had to do was snap my fingers. It's as easy as that."

"That's almost too easy. And you just found out you could do that today?”

"Yeah. So, I'm guessing that means I couldn't do it before the last re-transferring, so my powers must have grown. Not that I mind, of course. Hey! Want to see something else?”

Marvin nodded.

Kirk led Marvin to the downstairs bathroom of the house. Abey came along too. Kirk clogged the sink, turned on the faucet, and let it fill with water. Then he froze time again.

"Watch this."

Kirk put his hand into the water. When he took it out, the indentation left by his hand stayed! The water was really frozen!

"Touch it," Kirk said, holding out his hand with the frozen water in it.

Marvin put his finger in it. "Wow, that's cool. It feels like gel."

"Now watch this." Kirk threw the handful of neither hot nor cold frozen water into the air. The particles stopped in midair.

"Now _that_ is beyond cool," Marvin said.

"Okay, one more thing."

Kirk picked up the bar of soap next to the sink and held it in the air. Then he let go of it.

"Notice that the soap remains frozen in the air. Unless, of course, I do this."

Kirk placed his hand on the bar of soap and concentrated. A wave of blue light emerged from his hand and the soap fell to the floor.

"Notice that time is still frozen," Kirk went on. "Why then did the soap fall?"

"Cool," Marvin said. "You can unfreeze individual objects."

"Bingo.”

"Your powers have grown in two different ways only since last night. That's awesome, dude."

When the minute was up and time unfroze again, the indentation in the sink filled up again and the particles in the air fell down and splashed against the bathroom floor.

"There's no doubt about it," Marvin said as he drained the water out of the sink. "You have got some mighty cool powers, my man.”

"Still, they've got their limits," Kirk remarked.

"You mean the minute limit? So what?"

"Not just the minute limit, there's something else too."

"What?" Marvin asked.

Kirk touched wrists a third time.

This time nothing happened.

"Uh-oh." Marvin said. "What's the matter?"

"It freaked me out at first, too. I thought my powers weren't going to work anymore. But don't worry. I can freeze time again at five."

Marvin looked confused. "Five?"

"I can only freeze time twice within one hour period. That means I can freeze time once at two-thirty and again at two-forty-five, but then I have to wait until three o'clock to do it again.”

"How long has it been this way?" He sounded concerned.

"It's always been that way," Kirk said. "Well, as long as I've had my power, mean. I just never realized it until now because I never tried to freeze time more than twice in an hour before."

"Oh, so what?" Abey protested. "At least you _have_ a power. That's more than can be said for me."

"You can talk and fly," Marvin said. "Annette possesses the same combination."

"Annette doesn't fly, she levitates," Abey corrected him.

"Why don't you put on the fifth necklace?" Kirk suggested. "I mean, somebody's got to take its powers if the Magic Makers ever want to be a complete team. After all, you _are_ one of us, Abey. It'd mean you wouldn't freeze. What do you say?"

"I say no. The magic necklaces are for human beings. I'm a pigeon. The transferring of power at midnight would kill me. Besides, like Marvin said, I talk and fly. That combination is enough for me."

Kirk shrugged and let it go.

Talk about the fifth necklace made Marvin remember the dream. He hadn't told anyone about it. It probably didn't mean anything, but he figured, why not just tell Kirk to get it off his chest?

"Um, Kirk? I've been—"

"Hey!" he interrupted. "I know!"

Kirk dashed upstairs to the attic. Marvin and Abey followed.

"Couldn't one of us put it on and have two powers?" Kirk asked, taking the fifth necklace out of the box.

"Wait a minute," Marvin warned. "Abey told me that having more than one power might be dangerous.”

"Dangerous? What do you mean? If anything, it will be better. One of us could be twice as powerful."

"Go ahead and try it if you must," Abey said. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

Kirk smiled and began to put it on.

Marvin wanted to tell him not to. Not so much because it was risky, but because his dream seemed to be telling him that it was important that the necklace went to a certain person.

It made sense, too. Once the fifth necklace had a wearer, the team would be complete. There'd be no going back. The one to be Magic Maker number five was the only thing left undecided. When the decision finally was made, it would have to be made carefully.

As the necklace went on Kirk's neck, it immediately had to come off.

Had to as in _had to._

Here's what happened. The "M" on Kirk's necklace and the "M" on the fifth necklace touched each other and totally chemically reacted. Big sparks like fireworks exploded from the fused gold and just completely freaked out Kirk. It was like having lit firecrackers tied to a string around his neck.

Kirk screamed. Marvin screamed. Abey screamed, and flew around the room in panic.

Kirk forced the fifth necklace off of his neck and threw it on the floor. The sparks stopped. Unfortunately, by then it was too late. Kirk's shirt had caught on fire.

Kirk ran around the attic in panic. He was screaming like a sissy little girl. But honestly, can you blame him? He was on fire!

Luckily, Marvin knew exactly what to do. Standing back, he focused his eyes on Kirk's gray button-down shirt. His psychokinetic powers released from his eyes and attached themselves to the inflamed shirt.

Instead of pulling the shirt off, however, all it did was pull on it, causing Kirk to fall over onto the attic floor.

Poor Kirk! He'd been on fire for about ten seconds, and now, sprawled across the floor, it wasn't getting any better.

Enough fooling around. Marvin waved his right hand in Kirk's direction. This time it worked. The shirt tore right off. Every little button popped off and it even tore in a few places. The force sent the shirt flying across the room. It also sent the now shirtless Kirk rolling away in the other direction.

Marvin ran over to the burning shirt and stamped on it until the fire went out. Then he went over to Kirk and helped him up. Both of them were shaking.

What an ordeal! How frightening it had been! So frightening, in fact, that neither of them realized right away what had just happened.

Marvin's powers had just grown.


	6. Chapter 6

It took a long time for Marissa to walk all the way from the harbor to her house. She was dripping wet and her feet hurt more and more as she walked the many miles, her shoes making squishing noises the whole way.

Marissa didn't have any money with her, otherwise she could have easily taken a bus or a cab. Her car had been towed away from the place she'd left it parked the day she was cursed into the dimension. She could have hitchhiked if she had wanted to, but the chances of someone giving an old, soaked, albino-looking woman a ride seemed pretty slim.

Finally, after many hours, Marissa found herself standing in front of a place with a big sign overhead that said: Stinespring Mobile Home Park.

Marissa went immediately to her trailer. Once she was inside, she changed out of her wet clothes and fell into bed. She was exhausted.

It just goes to show you: you never know how big a city like Baltimore is until you have to walk all the way across it.

It was right then and there, laying on her bed in her house which had been empty for the past two weeks, that Marissa vowed that this time, she would not fail. She would kill Marvin for what he had done to her, and the magic would then be all hers. And anyone who tried to stop her would die too.

Marissa gave herself an hour or so to recuperate, then she got out of bed and got dressed. She didn't eat anything; she still wasn't hungry.

Instead she decided she would conjure a potion. Using some of her witch's ingredients, she brewed a magic potion according to its recipe, which she had been given by her mother. It was a bright yellow, foul smelling liquid, which she poured into a small glass vial once she had finished making it.

"Not as good as McMagicspell stuff," Marissa said to herself, "But it will do."

Marissa put the little container in her pocket, then she called a taxicab.

"I will not fail this time," she whispered to herself. "I will not fail."

* * *

"Here," Marvin said. "This is Icelandic Hail Water. Dab it onto the burns with this handkerchief."

Marvin handed the bottle of magic water and the handkerchief to Kirk.

"Thanks," Kirk said.

The three of them were in Marvin's bedroom. Kirk was sitting on the bed, still without a shirt.

"It'll make the burns go away a whole lot quicker," said Abey. "Not right away, though. Probably in a couple of hours."

"That's good," Kirk said. "At least then my parents won't wonder why I got burned over at your house and won't restrict me from ever coming over here again."

Kirk put the water on the various places on his neck, chest, and arms where the fire had gotten him. None of them were very bad, just first degree, but they hurt way too much. Marvin could see how much pain he was in, although Kirk tried not to show it.

"Hey, it feels better already," Kirk remarked as he put the water on. "It hardly hurts at all anymore."

"You'll be fine,” Abey said. "Well, if you guys don't mind, I'm kinda hungry I'm gonna go see what I can find in the park before it gets dark."

And with that, Abey flew off and away up to the attic to fly out the hole in the attic roof.

"I'm so stupid," Kirk said as he continued to apply the water to his burns. "I should have known better than to put on the necklace."

"No," Marvin disagreed, "if anybody's at fault, it's me. I shouldn't have let you. I should have just listened to the dream and waited to give the necklace to the right person."

"What dream?" Kirk asked.

Marvin sat down next to him. "Well, for the past few nights I've been having this really strange dream."

Kirk leaned in closer, interested. "Go on."

"In this dream, I'm sitting--or standing--I don't know. Anyway, I'm on this hill looking out across the harbor. It's daytime--or nighttime--or both. And suddenly, this huge voice seems to be calling to me. From everywhere at once--or nowhere at all--at the same time."

"Get to the point," Kirk urged.

"Anyway, this voice, it seems to be telling me who it wants me to give the fifth necklace to."

By that point Kirk was thoroughly intrigued.

"It sounds really weird," Marvin went on. "The voice, I mean. It seems like it's far off, but I can hear it just fine. It kind of talks in a whisper, but it's really loud, and I think it echoes a little.”

"Who does it say to give the necklace to?" Kirk wanted to know. 

"It doesn't. Every time I have the dream it ends before the voice tells me. It's like the dumb voice is teasing me or something."

"Weird." Kirk said. "You know, it could be your grandfather talking to you."

Marvin fought back tears. Grandpa Mark. Gone. It had been quite a while, but it still hurt a lot.

Marvin shook his head. "No," he said, forcing the lump out of his throat. "It was a woman's voice."

" _Ohhhh_. Well then, maybe it's your Aunt Marissa."

Marvin shuddered. "Do not even joke about that. But besides, it isn't. I know it isn't. It actually sounds like a young woman."

"Interesting," Kirk said. "Hey, speaking of Marissa, do you ever wonder where she might be?"

"She's in another dimension, remember?"

"Well, yeah, I know, but I mean, don't you like ever wonder where the dimension is exactly? Or what she might be doing? Or what might have happened to her?"

"I really don't care," Marvin admitted. "Just as long as she's not here."

Marvin got up and went over to the closet. He pulled a red T-shirt out.

"How's this?" he asked, showing it to Kirk.

"That'll do."

Marvin tossed the shirt to Kirk. He put it on.

"Thanks," he said.

"You're welcome. You can keep it. And I'll buy you another shirt to make up for the one that got burned. I've got lots of money."

Marvin slapped his pocket with the thousand dollars inside.

Kirk stood up and walked closer to the bedroom door, which was open just a little. "Did you hear that?" he asked, turning around and facing Marvin.

"Hear what?" Marvin wondered.

"That sound that just came from downstairs. It sounded like somebody came inside the house. Must be your parents”

Marvin looked at his watch. "It's not even five yet. They're not supposed to be home for a couple of hours."

Kirk and Marvin exchanged the same frightened look.

"I'll look," Marvin said, brushing past Kirk. "It's probably nothing."

Marvin quietly walked downstairs while Kirk stayed behind in the bedroom. Kirk felt as though he should probably go down with him, just in case, but decided to stay. Not because he was afraid, but because Marvin had seemed sure.

At least he _thought_ that he seemed sure.

There was no one in the foyer. Marvin looked in the parlor. Nobody. He searched the living room and the kitchen. Not a soul.

"There's nobody down here," Marvin said, standing in the entrance to the dim dining room. "Kirk must be hearing things."

Marvin turned around, and was about to head back up the stairs, but he stopped.

Standing right before him, face to face, were the same cold green eyes, the same jet-black hair, the same cruel smile, and the not-so-same cadaverously white skin that he'd seen many times before.

It was then that he suddenly felt himself short of breath. Very, very short. The only word that came to his mind to say left his mouth in a small, shaky, deathly terrified whisper.

"Marissa.”


	7. Chapter 7

"Marissa!"

That time he said it a little louder. A little as in eighty decibels louder.

Before he could act, Marissa grabbed the vial out of her pocket, opened it, and flung its contents right at Marvin's eyes.

"Aaaaahhh!!!"

Whatever it was, it hurt. It stung his eyes like nothing else could have. He shut them tightly, so tight that it was as if they had been clamped shut. Tears streamed down his face, half from the awful irritation, half from a horror so intense it could have emptied his bladder right then.

What he felt next was the pain of Marissa punching him in the stomach. He fell on the floor, winded. He was helpless.

Kirk came running. "Marvin! What's the matter?"

Marissa turned and glared at him.

"Oh no," he said. "Oh no! Oh no, it can't be!”

"Oh, but it is," she said. "Here I am, in the flesh. Slightly different flesh, but it's me just the same.”

A magic intervention was needed. Kirk hit his wrists together.

Nothing! His powers would not work again until five o'clock.

The fear was too much for him. Kirk ran out of the room.

"See that, Marvin?" Marissa sneered, turning back to her nephew on the floor. "Even your friends won't be able to save you now.”

Marvin forced his eyes open amidst the burning pain of the potion. He could only just barely make out Marissa, a blurry figure looming before him. He couldn't use his powers if he tried.

Or so he thought.

Suddenly, Marissa lunged at him!

Without even thinking about it, Marvin waved his hand in Marissa's direction. Instantly, Marissa was hurled across the room!

"AAAAAHHH!!!"

She slammed into the wall on the other side of the foyer, then fell hard onto the wooden floor.

"Oh my gosh!" Marvin exclaimed, only barely able to see. "I killed her!"

Marissa raised her head.

"Guess not," he said.

Marissa got up quickly, trying to comprehend what had just happened.

Right then, Kirk charged into the room, holding in his hand an antique sword he'd found on the wall above the fireplace in the parlor.

He charged directly at Marissa.

The blade went straight through her torso! Straight through! Marvin, who still was lying on the floor a few feet away, could just barely see the blade sticking out of her back.

But there was no blood.

"Oh my gosh!" Marvin repeated. " _ You _ killed her!”

Marissa jumped back, baffled from the shock of being impaled. But then, as if nothing had happened, she pulled the sword right out of herself. She wasn't even hurt!

Kirk was  _ not _ going to stick around there. If a sword wouldn't kill her, nothing would.

Kirk ran out of the room. Marissa ran after him, with the sword in her hand.

As Marissa ran by Marvin, he stuck out his arm to grab her leg and tripped her. The sword fell from her hand and glided across the floor.

Kirk turned around and swiped it up.

"Go ahead," Marissa said, rising up. "Stab me again. I dare you."

Kirk thrust the sword at her again. This time he went straight for the eyes.

But he wasn't quick enough. Marissa grabbed the end of the sword in her hand, just inches in front of her face. She snatched the other end of the sword from Kirk's hand and kicked him in the stomach. He fell backwards onto the floor next to Marvin.

Marissa came up to the two of them, with the sword in her hand. Her evil grin alone told them they were done for.

They were helpless. Powerless. Doomed.

Marissa raised the sword. The sword came down.

Not the way they thought it would, though.

It landed right next to them. Marissa had dropped it.

Marissa took a few steps back. She clutched her throat and the expression on her face was one of intense fear. Apparently something was wrong with her.

And then…

Flames exploded out of her belly!

Actual flames! Actual fire! Exploded out of her!

"AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" Her bloodcurdling scream echoed through the house. "AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!! AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!! AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!"

The blistering hot flames spread to the rest of her body. To her arms, her legs, her head--in a matter of seconds, her entire body was on fire!

"AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!! AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!! AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" she screamed in agony.

While all of this was going on, Marvin and Kirk sat nearby, not knowing any more than she did what the heck was happening to her.

Strangely enough, she was the only thing that was burning. Nothing else around her was being affected.

Then, the fire began to consume her and parts of her body started to disappear. First her arms, then her legs, slowly at first, then faster, and faster, and faster…

Her last set of screams faded away as her head vanished into fiery nothingness.

There was no smoke, no ashes, nothing. The flames were gone and so was Marissa.

Gone. Just plain gone.

* * *

About half an hour later, Marissa reappeared in the dimension. She instantly collapsed onto the ground of rock, gasping for air. She looked the same as before. She was not burned in the least, at any place on her body.

Centromere was there.

"I've been waiting. I didn't think you'd take so long."

Marissa looked up at him, having just experienced more pain than in a million deaths. What she had just gone through would have killed anyone within seconds.

Except that she was immortal now. Those who are immortal can't exactly get killed.

"What happened?" she demanded, frightened and angry and forlorn all at once. "Tell me!"

"I guess I should have mentioned this earlier,” Centromere said with a cruel smile, "but Chumicks can't survive in the mortal world. At least not for very long. That's why we live in these dimensions. When one crosses over from his dimension to the mortal world, he remains there for a short time, never more than a day, and then must immediately be taken back. And the trip back is never nice.

"It's called the Tunnel of Fire. It's the dimensional gateway a Chumick must pass through when returning from the mortal world. It takes about half an hour to be carried through, and the pain is agonizing the entire way."

"Chumicks?" Marissa said. "What do you mean, Chumicks?! I'm not a--"

"Yes you are!" Centromere barked. "You are now. Why do you think your skin has turned white? Why do you think you have managed to survive all this time with neither food nor water? Because you have become a Chumick. That is how your magic spell was designed. To send mortals to this dimension and turn them into Chumicks."

"You beast!" Marissa roared. "You set me up! You KNEW that this would happen!"

Centromere just laughed.

Marissa was devastated. "So this is what I am now? And I can never go back to my world?"

"Oh, sure, you can go back anytime. You'll have to return through the Tunnel of Fire, of course. Besides, this is your world now. Get used to it."

"NOOO!!!" Marissa yelled. "This can't be!!! If it takes me to the end of time, I swear, I will see that Marvin McMagicspell is punished for this!!!"

"McMagicspell?" Centromere asked, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Did you say McMagicspell?"

"Oh, what do you want?!" Marissa snapped, still too full of rage to care what he was saying.

"What about McMagicspell?" Centromere wanted to know.

Marissa forced him off. "My step-great nephew is Marvin McMagicspell, you dumb idiot. He's the one who imprisoned me here. But what do you care?"

"Are you insane?!" Centromere remarked. “McMagicspell magic is only one of the oldest and most powerful magics in all the dimensions! If a Chumick like me could have power like that, I would be the most honored and exalted in all of evil civilization! I would be a Chumick among Chumicks!"

"Yeah, well dream on, dog face," Marissa said coldly. "If I'm not getting the magic then you sure as heck aren't."

"Why didn't you tell me you were going after a McMagicspell?!" Centromere wailed.

"Why didn't  _ you _ tell me about that stupid Tunnel of Fire?" Marissa shot back.

“I could have helped you. I  _ will _ help you. I will send you to the mortal world once again to retrieve the magic and bring it back here. This time there will be no Tunnel of Fire. Once you've brought it, we will divide it between the two of us. Deal?”

"Wrong," Marissa said defiantly. "I'm not giving you anything."

Centromere seized her by the throat. "You WILL do as I say, Marissa! Or else you will suffer the wrath of a Chumick older and much more evil than you!"

"Okay! Okay!" Marissa said, afraid. "I'll do whatever you say!"

Centromere let go of her. "That's better. I will need some time. I'll return as soon as I can."

And with that, the old, dark-haired Chumick waved his long, black cloak through the air.

And the next second, he was gone.


	8. Chapter 8

Marvin called Courtney on her cell phone.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Hi, Courtney."

"Hi, Marvin."

"What are you doing?"

"Not much. Annette and I are just hanging out at the mall."

"The mall, right?" Kirk said.

Marvin glanced over at Kirk and nodded.

"Figures."

"There was a sale at Forever Twenty-One," Courtney went on. "I got this really cute purple blouse. You should see it."

"That's nice. Listen, we need to talk to you guys about a few things."

* * *

Marvin left the house with Kirk and the two of them headed to the mall to pick the girls up. They left Abey behind, who swore he'd watch the house like a hawk.

Once they got together, the four of them went to have a friendly Magic Makers dinner at Moonstone, which was just across the street from the mall.

"So, what's this all about?" Annette asked once they'd all been seated at a table.

Annette is Kirk's sister, but the two of them actually look very little alike. Annette is shorter, with long blond hair. She does have the same blue eyes as Kirk, though.

Courtney is also different. She's Hispanic, with a dark tan and dark eyes. Her hair is long and black. She's taller than Annette, yet shorter than Kirk and Marvin. She also has a really humorous attitude.

Marvin looked at Kirk, then at the girls.

"She came back."

Courtney and Annette exchanged fearful looks. They didn't even have to ask. They knew what he meant by "she".

Courtney took a deep breath. "Okay, um...how?"

Marvin shook his head. "I have no idea. Witch's luck, I guess."

"You should have seen her," said Kirk.

"No, I shouldn't have,” said Courtney.

"She looked really scary," Kirk went on. "Scarier than before. Her skin was really pale, like she was some kind of a zombie."

"Well, what did she do?" Annette asked. "Did she try to hurt you guys?"

"‘Hurt’ isn't the word," said Marvin. "‘Slaughter’ is more like it."

"Did you guys use your powers?" Annette wanted to know.

"Of course," Kirk said. "Well, Marvin did. I tried to, but I couldn't. You know, the limit, twice in an hour."

"Oh, poor baby," Courtney said.

Kirk frowned.

Courtney had said it affectionately with a straight face. Maybe she hadn't meant it to be obnoxious.

No matter, Marvin jumped in before Kirk could say anything back.

"I don't know, but my guess is that she's become some kind of immortal creature, like a demon or a vampire or something."

"A vampire?" said Annette.

"Did she try to bite you?" Courtney wondered.

"No, but she did throw some kind of potion into my eyes that stung like acid. I probably would have gone blind from it if it hadn't been for the Icelandic Hail Water and an eyedropper."

"Whatever she was, she wasn't human," Kirk observed. "No human could have gotten stabbed through the middle by a sword and not bled."

"A sword?" said Courtney. "Oh, wow."

"Hold on a minute," Annette said. "You said you used your powers, right?"

"Yeah."

"I don't get it. If she threw an acid potion in your eyes, how did you use your psychokinesis?"

Marvin and Kirk glanced at one another.

"Well, put your purse on the table and I'll show you."

Annette did as Marvin told her. Marvin flicked his wrist just a bit in the direction of her bag. The purse flew off of the table.

Annette ran over and picked it up off of the floor. "I sure hope nobody saw that."

"It's cool. I can channel my powers through my hands now. It's different than it is with my eyes, though. My eyes move things slowly and precisely. With my hands, it's quick and powerful. Like a thrust of energy."

"An energetic thrust," Courtney put in.

"Yeah. Looks like my powers have grown.”

"Funny that you just found that out right when you needed new powers the most," Kirk commented.

"I'll say," Marvin agreed.

"So," Annette said skeptically, "she attacked you, and Kirk couldn't use his powers, and you had acid in your eyes, and you used a sword but it didn't work...so just how did you get rid of her?"

"There was fire," Marvin told her.

"Lots of it," Kirk added. "There was fire and heat and burning and screaming. She basically incinerated into nothing."

"Whoa. So she's gone now?"

"Yeah, but I don't think she's dead," Marvin mentioned. "I think she was just being taken back to the dimension."

"Interesting way to go back," Courtney said.

"What if she comes back again?" Annette asked.

"If she does, she's not going to make it inside my house again. I'm getting the locks changed as soon as I can."

"What about us?" Courtney said thoughtfully. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Just lay low," Marvin told them. "And if you see Marissa and she tries to do something, call the police."

Kirk's eyebrows rose. "The police? Are you sure about that?”

"Of course. There's no need for any of us to put our lives on the line. Just let the law handle her."

Courtney smiled, "Splendid idea, Marvin. I'm so glad you're finally starting to see things the way I do."

Marvin rolled his eyes. "Sure, Courtney."

A waitress showed up at the table and set down four glasses of water. Then she took out her notepad.

"Are you ready to order?”


	9. Chapter 9

Another dark night had arrived, and Marvin came down the stairs, carrying under his right arm the  _ Book of Phenomena _ , and holding with his left hand the handle of the small, black cauldron from the attic. It was half full of a bluish hued brew. He also had three keys in his pocket.

Marvin set these things down on the floor in the foyer, right next to the front door, and opened the book to the page he had marked. The top of the page read: SPELL TO CHANGE A LOCK.

On this page were instructions for a magic spell, as well as what ingredients to use. These included things like meteorite, Amazon salt, cobra's venom, deadly nightshade, et cetera. All of these things had already been mixed together in the brew.

Marvin opened the front door a little bit and put one of the keys in the keyhole in the outside doorknob. This was his house key. He put the other two keys, which belonged to his parents, in the cauldron of brew. They both sank to the bottom.

He rested the first finger of his right hand on the key in the lock, and the first finger of his left hand he stuck into the brew. Then he began to read the incantation inscribed on the page of the open book:

These keys and lock have reached their time

They can no more safely stay the same

Because of this I use these words

To give this lock a chance to change

The reaction began immediately. The blue brew in the cauldron instantly lit up with its magic, and the key in the doorknob also appeared to become illuminated.

Once the light had gone, Marvin pulled the key out of the doorknob and took a good look at it.

"Wow," he muttered to himself. "It hardly looks any different. Now let's see if that Marissa can come in here again! Ha ha!"

Marvin poured the brew out of the cauldron onto the wooden floor. It instantly evaporated, leaving behind only the two keys. They had also changed.

Both the keys and the locks had been changed. Marissa's old key for the old door lock would not work for this new one. She'd have to break down the door if she wanted to come in.

And if she did that, she'd be breaking and entering. That's against the law. She'd go to jail.

He smiled at these thoughts.

Marvin took the book and the cauldron back up to the attic, and put the two keys back onto his parents' keychains. Then he went back to bed.

While he was asleep, he had the dream again.

* * *

"Marvin!"

"Huh? Oh, it's you again. Yeah, hi. What do you want?"

"Maarrrvvviiiiinnn!!!!"

"You know what? I don't even care anymore.”

"The fifth necklace, Marvin."

"Yeah, I know. I haven't given it to anyone yet."

"You must give the fifth necklace to--"

"And any minute now I'm gonna wake up and still not have the answer."

"You must give the fifth necklace to--"

"Any second now, it'll be rise and shine."

"You must give the fifth necklace to...José."

"Anytime now... Wait a minute! Did you just give me the answer?!"

"You must give the fifth necklace to José, Marvin."

"José? José Alvarado? From school?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure. José is the chosen one. The one who shall receive the fifth necklace and become the fifth Magic Maker. He will have the power to sublime."

* * *

"Marvin, it's time to get up," Mrs. Mannix voice called.

Marvin's body jerked awake and he instantly sat up in bed. He was drenched in cold sweat. The sun was shining through his bedroom window. It was morning.

Mrs. Mannix was standing in the doorway. "Come on now, out of bed. You have to get ready for school."

Mrs. Mannix shut the door so he could have privacy.

"José?" Marvin said, almost shouting. "José?! José Alvarado?!! I don't even know him!”


	10. Chapter 10

Marvin went to school still rattled from the dream he'd had. José Alvarado? Why him?

José was a freshman, like Marvin, but the two of them had only one class together, and they sat all the way on the other side of the room from each other. Marvin had never even said hello to José, or José to Marvin. The idea of picking him to be Magic Maker number five was an awkward thing.

Marvin tried hard that day to pay attention to his studies and not think about the dream.

After second period there was a special assembly. It was a short one, so all the students were let out of it early and had a few minutes to just hang out in the quad and do whatever before third period started.

During that time, Kirk found Marvin wandering around alone and went over to him.

"What's up?" Kirk asked.

"Nothing," Marvin answered.

"Hey, did you hear about the school talent show that's gonna be held here at school this weekend?”

"Yes, I did.”

"Are you gonna go?"

"I guess so." Marvin glanced across the quad. "Hey! What does she think she's doing?!"

Kirk frowned. "Huh?”

Marvin pointed. Kirk turned his head and looked. On the other side of the quad, Annette was walking, and next to her was another girl that looked like she was made out of colored glass.

Courtney. She'd used her magic powers and turned invisible. Kirk and Marvin could somewhat see her because they were wearing magic necklaces, but to everyone else, Annette was just walking by herself, talking to no one and looking over at nothing.

"Looks like she's having fun to me," Kirk said with a smirk. "You know, it's funny. It seems like it wasn't very long ago that she was making a big fuss about how all the magic stuff freaked her out."

"She shouldn't be using her powers in public like that. Somebody might see her.”

Kirk cocked an eyebrow. "Marvin, the entire point of being invisible is that nobody sees you."

"That's not what I meant. I meant somebody could have seen her _turn_ invisible and thought that she disappeared."

"Nobody saw her," Annette said.

Kirk turned around. The girls had caught up to them.

"She did it in the bathroom. Nobody was there, so nobody saw her. Enough said?”

"Besides, I like turning invisible," Courtney told them. "It's cool. It's fun. It's mystilogical."

"Mystilogical?" Kirk wondered.

Courtney smiled. The others could see right through her teeth, as well as her whole head. "It's a new word I made up. It's a combination of the words mystical and mythological. It means something is really neat."

Kirk jerked his thumb at Courtney. "These are the sorts of things they do with their time," he muttered to Marvin.

Annette crossed her arms and gave the boys her "responsible" look. "Don't act like you don't use your powers every moment you get a chance to. I saw what you did to Sheldon yesterday with your psychokinesis, Marvin."

"Hey, he deserved to have his glasses pulled off. He kept on following me around singing this stupid song about diarrhea. 'When you're sittin' on the John and the toilet paper's gone...' He was driving me crazy!"

You've never met Sheldon, but if you ever did, you'd immediately wish you hadn't. He is the single most annoying freak in the entire school, and the city of Baltimore, and the state of Maryland.

"Hey," Courtney jumped in, quickly changing the subject. "Kirk told us about that dream you've been having, Marvin. You know, recurring dreams are a sign of insanity."

"No they aren't,” Kirk said, looking at Courtney like she was an idiot.

"I had it again last night. This time I finally got the answer."

Everybody stared at Marvin.

"You mean the voice told you who to give the fifth necklace to?" Annette said, interested.

Marvin nodded.

"Who?" Courtney asked.

"Him." Marvin pointed. The others looked.

Standing there, several yards away, leaning against the lockers and holding his backpack on one shoulder, was a boy of medium height, with brown skin, dark eyes, and black spiked hair. José Alvarado.

Facing him were two other guys. One of them was tall and white, with blue eyes and long, blond hair tied behind him in a ponytail. The other was about as tall, with skin and eyes like José's and short black hair.

"José Alvarado?" Annette said, surprised. "Seriously?"

"Yep."

"You had a dream about José? That worries me," Courtney remarked.

Marvin ignored her. He was noticing something else. "Hey, those two guys he's with, are they his friends?"

"Sure," Kirk said. "That's Jason Calvin. The other one is Dante Desoto, José's cousin."

"I know who Jason is. He sits next to me in English. He's talked to me a couple of times, and he asked if he could borrow a pen from me once. I've never met Dante. I just never knew the three of them were friends."

"Dante's a sophomore," Courtney said. "I think he's kinda cute."

Kirk groaned.

"What are you gonna do?" Annette asked.

Marvin shrugged. "What should I do? Just go over there and say, 'Hey José, my name's Marvin. You don't know me, and you're probably too cool to want to, but how would you like to be a Magic Maker?’"

"Talk to him," Kirk encouraged. "Make friends with him, like you did with us. Go over to his house."

"Have you seen his house?" Courtney said. "It's a nice house."

"Let me guess," Marvin said. "He's rich."

"Rich, popular, cool," Kirk listed. "Quite threatening, really."

"Oh, nice job Kirk," Annette said to her brother. "That ought to make him feel real good about it."

"Just go over and talk to him," Courtney said. "It'll be okay."

* * *

"Who's that guy?" Dante said.

"What guy?" José inquired.

"That guy over there with Kirk and Annette who keeps looking at us."

"Oh, that's Marvin," Jason said. "He's new here. He seems cool."

"Yeah," José agreed. "He does."

* * *

Marvin took a deep breath. Then he began to walk over to José, Jason, and Dante.

Marvin considered this moment and flashed back to what would have happened had he attempted this type of thing at Fredericksburg High School. They probably would have said, "Sorry, we don't talk to dorky people." "Dorky" was common, but words also used were "ugly", "smelly", and "queer".

_Heaven help me, please don't call me queer,_ Marvin silently pleaded.

"Hey guys," Marvin said nervously once he'd reached them. "Um, so, what's going—"

"Yo!" someone interrupted. "Jason! What's up buddy?"

Marvin turned and saw Sheldon approaching.

_Oh, great, this is just what I need. To have Lindsey Sheldon come and embarrass me in front of these guys before I even get a chance to talk to them._

"What do you want, Sheldon?” Jason said wearily.

"What, can't I come and talk to my bro?"

"Not at school, not ever. Go away, Sheldon."

“Hi, Marvin," Sheldon said. "Long time no speak. Popped any new pimples lately?"

"I said go away, Sheldon!" Jason almost shouted it this time.

Sheldon snorted egotistically and turned and walked away with his nose high in the air.

"Sorry about that,” Jason apologized. "You were saying, Marvin?”

Marvin suddenly felt sick to his stomach.

"Um, I have to go."

He quickly turned and walked away.

"Is he okay?" José wondered.

"Don't worry about it," said Dante.

* * *

For most of the remainder of the day, the other Magic Makers told Marvin multiple times that it was okay and that he'd get another chance some other time, but it didn't really make him feel better. All it really did was annoy him. He eventually had to tell them to just leave him alone.

By the end of the day, he ended up being alone, standing in the parking lot, waiting for his ride. Other students were around, but oblivious to his presence.

"Hi, Marvin," a voice came from behind him. Marvin turned around. Standing there was Jason. José and Dante were nowhere to be seen.

"Hi."

"Listen, sorry about earlier today. Don't let my stepbrother get to you."

"Hold on a minute. Lindsey Sheldon is your stepbrother?!"

Jason laughed. "Yeah. I'm surprised you know his name is Lindsey. He hates that name."

Marvin shook his head. "You poor thing. To have him for a stepbrother." Then he made a _tsk tsk_ sound.

"His dad married my mom. I only have to put up with him once every two weeks. And every other time he bugs me at school. It could be worse.”

"Not much worse."

"Listen, let's start over. I'm gonna walk over to José's house right now. He only lives a couple of blocks away. You wanna come?"

Marvin smiled. He'd just been invited somewhere.

"Definitely!”


	11. Chapter 11

Marvin called his dad with his new cell phone and told him he'd find another ride home.

"Sheldon is such an idiot," Jason said after Marvin had gotten off the phone. He threw his long, blond hair behind his shoulders, then tied it.

Jason and Marvin were walking together on the sidewalk as the warm sun shone down on them. They had gone about a block away from the school.

Marvin put the phone back in his pocket. "You've got cool hair, man."

Jason smiled. "Thanks."

"How long did it take you to grow it that long?"

"About a year," Jason replied. "Why would Sheldon say, 'Popped any new pimples lately'? You don't have pimples."

Marvin blushed. "I had one last week. It was a big one right in the middle of my forehead."

"I didn't notice it."

"Yeah, well, Sheldon did. And I heard about it, of course."

"Like I said, he's an idiot. Don't pay any attention to him.”

* * *

"Is Jason coming?" Dante asked.

"Yeah," José answered. "He said he was going to."

José and Dante were lounging on the sofa in the living room of José's house watching the big screen TV.

In addition to a big screen, José's family also had video games, a computer, a stereo system, weights, and something very special in the garage. They also lived in a pretty nice house, with pretty nice furniture. It was no wonder everybody at school believed José's family was rich.

Dante had always told him that it was good for them to think that. It would keep José high on the list of popular kids at school. Dante himself had been deemed as one of the richest and most popular in the sophomore class. The only difference was it was true in Dante's case. It was a bit of an illusion in José's.

José and Dante heard the front door open and people talking.

"What, you're just gonna walk right in? Without knocking?"

"Of course. This is José's house. The door's usually unlocked, so I can just drop in anytime I want."

"Gee, I didn't know you guys were so close," Marvin said.

"Oh sure, we're a team. We're all in the same band."

"Band?" Marvin wondered.

"Hey guys," Jason said, leading Marvin into the living room. "I brought Marvin along.”

Dante's eyebrows rose. _ What's _ he  _ doing here? _ he thought.

José smiled, flashing the braces on his teeth. He'd hoped he'd get a chance to really know this new student. He really wanted Marvin to think something good of him, possibly even look past what everybody else always saw. For once, he just wanted someone to like him for who he really was, not for the rich guy he'd come to be known as. Perhaps Marvin would.

José was glad Marvin had come over.

He just didn't tell him he was.

"I thought he could watch us while we practice," Jason suggested.

"Practice?" Marvin said. "Practice what?"

"Come and see," Jason said.

Jose and Dante got up off of the sofa and went with Jason into the garage. Marvin followed them in.

Inside the garage were two large amplifiers, a couple of microphones on stands, a drum set, and two guitars, one regular, one bass.

Dante set himself up on the drums. José picked up the guitar and threw the strap over his shoulder, taking the neck in his left hand and the pick in his right. Jason grabbed the bass and did the same.

"Oh!" Marvin said. "Wow! You guys are a punk band!"

"Duh," said Dante.

"What's your band called?"

"Wicked Existence," Jason answered.

Marvin made a face. "Oh."

"What? You don't like it?" Dante asked.

"Well, I guess it's okay. It just sounds kind of..."

"Kind of what?" Dante wanted to know.

"Grim."

"You know, you're right," Jason complied. "I never really liked that name anyway And we don't want to give the wrong impression. We're not  _ that _ kind of a punk band. I've been thinking we should change it.”

"What, you think you know a better name, Marvin?” Dante pressed.

Marvin remembered Courtney's word. "Yeah."

"What?"

"Mystilogical."

"What did you say?" Jason inquired.

"Mystilogical. It's a combination of the words mystical and mythological."

Jason grinned. "I like that! That sounds cool!"

"Oh, come on, Jason," Dante argued. "Get serious."

"I am serious. I think we should make that our new name.”

Dante rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe Jason was letting some guy they hardly even knew change their band name.

José was thinking,  _ Here's my chance. I'll show him what I'm made of, and then I know he 'll like me. _

"Hey, Marvin," José said, "want to hear me play something?"

"Um, sure. I guess."

José proudly began strumming the guitar, and the sounds of it loudly played from the amplifier. The notes were sharp and fast, accurate and precise. A song grew from the notes.

As he went along, Jason joined in on the bass, and Dante added a beat with the drums. Loud rock and roll sounds blasted from the amplifiers. Marvin almost had to cover his ears.

Then José began to sing into the mike. Not only was he a good guitar player, he was a great singer too. And he could do both at the same time. Now that was talent.

It was also boastful. At least to Marvin it was.

_ I should have known, _ Marvin thought.

When the song was over, José asked, "So, what do you think?"

_ He's impressed, _ José thought.  _ I know he is. He's sure to like me now. _

But all Marvin said was, "I have to leave."

José's face fell.

Marvin turned and stormed out of the house, his face pea-green.

"Bye!" Dante said laughingly, happy to have him gone. "Hey guys, lets try that song again. I think I messed up on the cymbals at that one middle part.”

  
_ Guess I'm not that impressive after all, _ José thought sadly.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marvin is a dumbass. But, I needed him and José to not be friends right away. Because reasons.
> 
> Luckily Marvin has Kirk as his best friend.

Marvin rushed back to the school and was lucky to catch Kirk just as he was leaving. He gave him a ride.

"What happened?" Kirk asked as he drove out of the parking lot and onto the street. "Where did you just come from?"

"José's house."

"Oh," Kirk said, surprised.

"Did you know that they have a band?"

"Yeah, I knew.”

Marvin looked away. "Oh. Well, I didn't."

"What's the matter? You sound mad."

"I'm not. I'm just...annoyed."

"Why? Was José a jerk to you?"

"Basically."

"Listen, don't worry about it. It's in the past. Besides, who cares what he thinks?"

Marvin shook his head shamefully. "I'm a nobody. Just like I was back at Fredericksburg."

"No you're not!"

"Compared to him, I am."

"Does a nobody have a best friend?"

Marvin didn't answer that. It's not that he didn't have an answer, because he did. _Of course a nobody can have a best friend,_ he could have said. But then, he'd have had to add, _but then the best friend is also a nobody,_ and he knew that Kirk definitely wasn't. But then again, was Kirk really his best friend?

Marvin gazed outside the window. There was silence for about two minutes.

Kirk decided to break the silence. He took his hands off the wheel and hit his wrists together.

The car stopped. Everything stopped.

Marvin was confused.

Kirk sent a playful punch onto Marvin's left shoulder.

Marvin clutched his shoulder and laughed. "Ow! Hey, that hurt!"

He got Kirk back with a slap on the back of the head.

The two of them grappled onto each other's arms and howled with playful laughter.

"You're no challenge," Marvin taunted, "You'd better stick to ballet, Kirkwood."

"Kirkwood? Oh, now you're finished!"

Kirk grabbed Marvin and held him in a headlock with his arm.

"Hey, no fair!" Marvin wailed.

"Say uncle! Say it Marvin!"

"Oh my gosh! Kirk, your watch! Only two seconds left!"

"What?!" Kirk released him and looked quickly at his watch. There was more than half a minute left.

"What the--”

"Gotcha!" Marvin cried. He threw his hands out and used energetic thrust to push down on the lever on the side of Kirk's driver seat and to throw the back of the seat down. Kirk fell with it.

"Give it up, Kirk! You're pinned, man!"

Kirk tried to get up, but couldn't. He was helplessly pinned down by the vast magic force flowing from Marvin's hands. So he relented.

"Okay, that's enough," he said. "Let me up."

Marvin let go of Kirk. A second later, Kirk leaped up and grappled onto Marvin's arms.

"Hey! You said that was enough!"

The two of them kept their grasp. Then, quickly and more or less intentionally, they hugged.

They sat up again just as time unfroze. Kirk got back to his driving.

Marvin knew it then. There was no doubt in his mind that Kirk was definitely his best friend.

"Kirk," Marvin said as they drove on, "would you still be my best friend if I didn't have all the magic I have?"

Kirk didn't hesitate to answer. "Of course I would."

Marvin gazed outside the window once again. Maybe he wasn't such a nobody after all.

But it wasn't easy for him to convince himself that that was true. Sometimes, when a person has lived a life of loneliness in which almost everyone they've ever come across made them feel as though they were nothing, it's hard for that person to show themselves otherwise. Even after everything has changed.


	13. Chapter 13

You guys should have seen what he did," Marvin said. "Honestly, the nerve of that guy.”

He was at home, in the upstairs study. The other Magic Makers were in there with him. Marvin was sitting in an armchair. Kirk and Courtney were side by side on a sofa, with Abey perched on the arm. Annette was halfway across the room, finishing up her English homework on the big, black desk which was once the desk Grandpa Mark used.

"I don't get it," Courtney said. "I know José well. He's a nice guy. What could he have done that was so bad?"

"Nice to you, of course," Annette commented without looking up from her work. "He only used to date you."

"Please concentrate on your assignment, Annette," Courtney ordered.

Annette grinned slyly. "Yes, mother."

Marvin leaned forward. "Wait a minute. You guys dated?"

"Sure," Kirk told him. "Before you came they did. They were such a cute couple. Too bad they broke up.'

Courtney rolled her eyes.

"Answer Courtney's question," Abey insisted. "What did he do?"

"He played his guitar."

Everyone looked at Marvin with blank expressions.

"He was doing it to make me feel inferior. He's such a showoff!”

"How do you know he was doing it to make you feel inferior?" Abey questioned.

"I just know, okay?"

"I don't think that's what he was trying to do. You expect the worst in people, Marvin."

"Listen, it doesn't matter anyway," Kirk said. "You don't have to like him or give him the fifth necklace if you don't want to. We can find somebody much better."

"But what about the dream?" Courtney mentioned. "The voice said that he's the one.”

"Forget about the dream," Kirk said. "What does it matter who you give it to? You gave us necklaces without having to be told by any dream."

Marvin shook his head. "No, I think Courtney's right. People don't just have dreams like that. It must mean something."

"It might mean nothing."

"No." Marvin argued. "I'm sure that it's important. See, not only did the voice say to give it to José, but it also told me what power he would get."

Four faces—three human and one pigeon-stared at Marvin, wide-eyed.

"You're kidding!" Annette said.

What power?" Courtney asked.

“It said, ‘He will have the power to sublime'."

“Sublime?” Kirk wondered. "What does that mean?"

Abey flew out of the room.

"Where's he going?" Marvin said.

Courtney shrugged. "Potty break, maybe? I need one too.”

Courtney got up and left the room.

Annette pulled an old dictionary out of the nearby bookcase, placed it on the desk, and turned it to the S section.

"Sublime: noble, exalted, majestic..."

"Are you sure the voice didn't say, 'He will have a power that  _ is _ sublime’?" Kirk asked.

"Yes, I'm sure," Marvin replied. "Annette, is there a verb form of that word?"

"Yes. It says, 'to pass directly from a solid state to a gaseous state without becoming a liquid."

Marvin snapped his fingers. "That's like what dry ice does, isn't it?"

"That's what his power is going to be?" Kirk said incredulously. "He's gonna turn into vapor like dry ice?

Abey flew back into the room. Flying several feet behind him was the  _ Book of Phenomena. _

Abey landed on the arm of the sofa once again. The book stopped in front of him and hovered there in the air

"How do you do that?" Marvin said, amazed.

"I can't carry the book around like you humans can," Abey answered. "So, a week ago I put a spell on the book to make it so that it would follow me whenever I tell it to.

Kirk scratched his head. "How do you make it stop?"

Abey looked at the book. "You can stop following me now."

The book fell to the floor.

"Go to page 994," Abey said.

Marvin picked up the book, placed it on his lap, and turned it to the right page. Annette and Kirk got up and came over to look.

Across the top of the page it read: THE POWER TO SUBLIME

Kirk nodded in approval. "The book tells you everything, doesn't it?"

The rest of the page said:

...is a great ability only a few gifted ones possess. It involves transforming into a

separate vapor-like astral form, which enables one to pass through solid matter. The limits of this power vary.

“Incredible!" Annette cried. "So he'll like be able to walk through walls with this power."

A few of the following pages read: THE POWER TO LEVITATE, PSYCHOKINESIS, and THE POWER OF INVISIBILITY. There was no page, at least not in that part of the book, that told about the power to freeze time, which made Kirk wonder

"This is interesting," Marvin said. "I've never seen any of this in the book before."

"Well, you've also never really looked through it," Abey said. "And there's a reason for that. The book radiates a magic charm that prevents you from being tempted to page through the whole thing all at once. Only when you were looking for something did you look in the book.”

“Why would the book have a charm to keep you from being tempted?" Annette asked.

“It's safer that way. Having every magic spell laid out before you often results in greedy personal interest, even in the pure heart of a McMagicspell."

Marvin flipped through the pages of the book. "Yeah, well, that magic charm must have just worn off, because all of a sudden I'm really interested in this book."

Abey sighed. "Jiminy Christmas. Hundreds of years it's lasted and it just  _ now _ wore off? What next?"

Marvin kept flipping through the pages, and then, without even thinking about it, he stopped.

He stopped directly on a page reading: TALENT SPELL.

Marvin looked up from the page at Kirk, Abey, and Annette. He slammed the book shut.

"Um, I think I'll go put this back.”


	14. Chapter 14

Marvin put his Algebra book back in his backpack. He was relieved to finally be finished with his homework. It was later that evening. He was in his room alone, except for Abey. The others had left.

"Abey, how do you suppose Marissa was able to come back? I mean, I thought the dimension should have held her there forever."

"Yes, that is strange. What's even stranger is how she could have survived there for two weeks. I don't imagine the dimension was bountiful with food and water."

"Yeah, good point. I guess that's why she looked dead."

"She looked what?"

"Dead. I'm telling you, it was scary. She was like, white. And not white like me, white like a dove. Well, maybe dove's not the right word. She was just really white. White as anybody could be."

Abey's countenance became one of shock, worry, and fear. "Oh no," he whispered.

"What's the matter?" Marvin asked, concerned.

Abey had not been at the house when Marissa came back. He hadn't seen her. Marvin and Kirk had told the other Magic Makers about Marissa being white, but they hadn't said it to Abey. They also never mentioned to him that she disappeared from the scene in fire. Abey never asked how she left either, he just assumed they got rid of her with their powers.

If Abey had known about Marissa being white, or about her disappearing in fire, he would immediately have known what Marissa was.

"The book," Abey said. "Look in it."

Marvin brought the book down and paged through it until he came to the part Abey told him about. The top of the page held a single word: CHUMICKS

"Immortal creatures from other dimensions with white skin, dark hair, and bodies hollow of blood," Marvin read. "They are restricted from entering the mortal world in their natural form; those that do remain for a brief period, but are returned to from whither they came through a torture chamber called the TUNNEL OF FIRE.

"All Chumicks are inherently evil. Thousands of them dominate at least nineteen dimensions. When Chumicks were created is unknown, but it is said that they came about gradually, and that more and more Chumicks are being made from former mortals that were evil. Most Chumicks, over time, gain special powers, which they build up and use to emblazon infamy upon their names."

The pages that followed contained information on some of those "infamous" Chumicks. But Marvin didn't read them. He wasn't "tempted".

Marvin took a deep breath and closed the book. "Well, now I know what she is."

"Marvin, this isn't good. This is very bad. Very, very bad."

"Why?"

"Don't you see? You guys aren't just facing Marissa the witch anymore.

"We're facing Marissa the Chumick. Yes, Abey, I understand."

Abey shook his small head. "It's not just that."

"What?" Marvin said. "You think she's gonna build up special powers and emblazon her name with infamy? So what if she does? Why worry?”

"Because, Marvin, you aren't just against Marissa anymore. You're against every single evil Chumick in the nineteen-plus dimensions. Every single one! The four, soon to be five of you against thousands of Chumicks! Don't you realize what kind of a fight you're facing?"

Marvin shut his eyes and grabbed the sides of his head. "I don't understand!" he said, frustrated. "Thousands of Chumicks, and nobody in our world has ever seen them or even knows about them. Why is it suddenly us against them? How can a reality this bizarre and this dangerous have been hidden from me until now, and continue to be hidden from everybody else on this planet all the time?”

"Marvin, the Chumicks are ultimately responsible for every bad thing that's ever happened to the McMagicspells. They hate them. They don't care about all the other mortals, they aren't their enemy. It's the McMagicspells they fight, the McMagicspells who have the magic they want so badly. As a McMagicspell, you are their enemy. Until just eighty years ago, the McMagicspells were alive and well in Europe. But then after that, the Chumicks assumed that every last one of them was gone. With the McMagicspells gone, what need did they have to keep coming here to the mortal world? No need at all! Who did they have to fight? No one! But very soon they're going to find out that McMagicspell has returned. And they're going to start coming again. They're going to head here. This is where the Magic Makers have begun, and this is where the Chumicks will come to fight them. That means you, Annette, Kirk, Courtney José, if you do give him the necklace."

"But the book says they can't come here without going back through the Tunnel of Fire. Why would any Chumick want to come here if he knew _ that  _ was going to happen to him?"

"The book says they're restricted from coming here in their  _ natural _ form. Some of them are experienced. They know how to come here in a different form. One that is immune to the Tunnel of Fire."

Marvin looked down at the floor. "Oh. Well then how are they going to know to come? Do the Chumicks have some sort of psychic ability that lets them know that we have powers and we're using the McMagicspell magic?"

"No. They only know what they hear and see. And besides traveling from their dimension to ours, they move about on their feet the same as we do--you do. They're the same as humans, really, only so much more evil, so much more powerful... and they're immortal too."

"If they only know what they hear and see, then how are they going to know about us?"

"Marissa will tell them.”

That stopped Marvin cold.

"She could only have come back to this world through a portal," Abey continued. "She's only been a Chumick for a couple of weeks, at most. No way she could have gained any powers in that little time. Another Chumick had to have opened a portal for her. Whoever that Chumick was, she's probably told him about you and your friends. That must be why he opened it for her. So she could come and steal the magic, then bring it to him.”

"Yeah." Marvin said. "But don't you think it's kind of strange that he didn't tell her about the Tunnel of Fire? I mean, maybe it's just me, but I don't think she was expecting fire when she got it."

"Yes, it is strange. Perhaps the Chumick who helped her was counting on her to come and steal the magic, then bring it to him before time ran out. Either that, or…”

"He tricked her. Yes that's probably it. He thought he'd give her a taste of the fire just to be mean. If he wanted the magic, he could have come here himself to take it.”

"Yes, you're right. Chumicks are selfish and evil, even to each other. If he'd have known about the magic, he'd have come for it on his own."

"So then she didn't tell him," Marvin resolved.

"Or she didn't tell him until after she returned from the Tunnel of Fire."

"But then wouldn't the Chumick have come here already if she told him?"

"All right, maybe she didn't tell him. But she's going to tell one of them sometime."

"How do you know?"

"I guess I don't. But you may soon find out. And when you do, it'll be us against all of them.”

"But not really  _ all _ of them," Marvin said. "Right, Abey? I mean, like you said, they're selfish and evil. They wouldn't really join forces and unite against us, would they?"

"No, I don't suppose they would," Abey admitted. "But they still will fight you. You're a McMagicspell, Marvin. You were born into this. But your friends-are they ready, willing, and able?”

"I guess I'll have a few things to talk to them about, won't I?"


	15. Chapter 15

A couple more days passed by, and soon the weekend came. On Saturday night, Kirk came by Marvin's house with Courtney and Annette to pick him up. The four of them were going to the school talent show together.

Marvin invited them all inside. He sat them down in the parlor. He told them everything that Abey had told him, and he showed them the Chumick page in the book.

"So." Annette began, "these Chumicks, they're gonna start coming?"

"That's what Abey believes," Marvin answered.

"What do you believe?" Annette wanted to know.

"I admit I'm worried. It's bad enough having Marissa against all of us. But now to have more and more against us? That's gonna be tough."

"Not to mention dangerous," Courtney added.

"But to be honest," Marvin continued, "until I see any of these things, I really don't want to have to judge the situation."

"I think they're gonna come," Kirk said. "And when they do, I'm gonna fight them.”

"Suddenly Kirk wants to be a big hero," Courtney said, annoyed. Apparently she was still reluctant to have to get into any trouble. "You know, none of this would be happening if we hadn't fought Marissa and sent her to that dimension. And we wouldn't have had to fight her if we hadn't gotten powers and become Magic Makers. You will never find a superhero in any comic or TV show whose enemy came about because of their being a superhero. We become Magic Makers, we automatically get an enemy. That's pretty much how it is. We basically dug ourselves into this hole.”

"I think you're wrong. Courtney," Kirk said. "Marissa would have come after the magic even if it hadn't been for us. In fact, if it hadn't been for us, she probably would have gotten it. All that power in her hands? She'd have sent forth a reign of terror on the whole city, probably. We had to be there, to stop her. And we have to be here to stop the Chumicks when they come. All of this happened because it was supposed to happen. We're here with powers because it's important that we fight.”

"You guys." Marvin said, "I've said it before and I'll say it again You don't have to stay in this. I'm a McMagicspell, so I do. But you're just people. You can give up your powers and leave and not have to fight if that's what you wish."

"I'm staying." Kirk said. "This is something important that I feel I need to be a part of. So I'm definitely staying."

Annette nodded. "And if my brother stays, then I stay too.”

Courtney sighed and rolled her eyes. "Well, I guess I wouldn't be much of a friend if I let Annette be without me in this. I'll stay too."

Marvin smiled. "I'm very happy to hear all of you say that. But don't make your final decision yet. Everything's okay now, but let's wait until we know just what we're in for before you decide to stay.”

Right then, a key turned in the front door and Marvin's parents came inside.

“We're home," Mr. Mannix said.

"Well hello everyone," Mrs. Mannix said when she saw everyone in the parlor.

"Hi. Mrs. Mannix," Annette said sweetly.

"What's up Mrs. M?" Courtney said.

"It's nice to see all of you. Will you be staying for dinner?"

"Actually Mom," Marvin said, "we're going to the school talent show. And then alter that I thought we'd have dinner at Moonstone."

"Moonstone?" Mrs. Mannix said. "Didn't you eat there on Wednesday?"

"We like it there, Mom."

Mrs. Mannix chuckled. "I can't imagine why you would."

"But you work there, Mrs. Mannix," Kirk mentioned.

She turned and began to walk out of the room. "Exactly."

* * *

The Magic Makers left the house and headed over to the school to see the talent show. There were lots of other teenagers there, all eager to see some of their friends perform.

José, Jason, and Dante were there too. But they weren't there to watch.

"Boy, there sure are a lot of people here tonight," Jason said inside one of the back rooms behind the school auditorium. They were back there, practicing with their equipment.

"I wonder if we'll win a prize," Dante said as he pedaled the bass drum.

José strummed his guitar. "I doubt it. My inadequate singing is  _ not _ going to win any prizes.”

"What are you talking about, José?" Dante said, putting down the drumsticks. "Everybody knows that you are the best singer and guitar player in the city.”

José turned his head and looked behind him at his cousin. "Most of what ‘everybody knows' about me are lies. And most of them are lies that you told them."

"José, José, José. I'm just trying to give you an image, buddy. Come on. Would you rather be a nobody like Marvin Mannix?”

"What are you talking about?” José demanded. "Marvin is not a nobody."

"Not at all," Jason said as he tested the sound on the amps. "He's just new, that's all. But he'll come around."

Dante shook his head in disbelief.  _ Ignorant children, _ he thought,  _ where do you get these ideas? _

"He's the real thing," José said. "He knows what's going on. And he knows I suck at music. That's why he left my house when I was playing."

“Who cares what he thinks?" Dante said, getting up from his stool. "We're gonna win first prize tonight, and then we'll see what he thinks of us then."

José put his hand around a certain letter hanging from a gold chain around his neck. "We'll see about that."


	16. Chapter 16

“‘Scuse me, pardon me, pardon me, ‘scuse me…”

"Courtney," Kirk said wearily as he followed behind her, "is it that important that we sit so close to the front? We're having to crawl over all these people."

"Ooops! Sorry," Annette said to a seated person as she followed behind Kirk. "Didn't see your foot there."

"There's four seats right there," Courtney pointed. "See? And they're so close. We'll have a perfect view.”

"Ow! My knee," Marvin whimpered, behind Annette.

Four other people sat down in the vacant seats.

"Hey!" Courtney cried. "How rude!"

Kirk took hold of Courtney's arm and pulled her along the other way. "Come on. There are plenty of seats in the middle."

* * *

The lights went down and the talent show began. Kirk put his video camera he'd brought along up to his face. Mr. Shagbark, the English teacher, came out from behind the curtain, wearing a tuxedo, to welcome everyone and open the show.

The first performer was an elderly man playing a symphony on the piano.

"That's John Preston," Annette whispered to Marvin. "He used to teach choir here. He retired a couple of years ago. He still plays for the talent show every year, though I think he's been playing the piano since he was ten. He's really good. He could play with his eyes closed."

"Shhh," Kirk hissed, without looking away from behind the camera. "He's starting.”

John Preston began playing on the piano. Every person in the auditorium watched in awe at the great talent that this man possessed. He'd been playing his whole life. The piano had become a part of him.

Every note he hit was right. Every sound that came from the piano's strings was a beautiful one. Some people shut their eyes and let the sounds of the wonderful music carry them away to a land of dreams.

A few minutes passed, and the symphony ended. Everyone in the auditorium clapped and cheered loudly for this great man who had just shown his great talent.

John Preston stood up and bowed, proud of his talent.

John walked off the stage. The curtains closed.

And then came the next performers.

Mr. Shagbark came out once again. "Next up on our line of performers," he said into the mike, "is a band you're all familiar with. Until recently, José Alvarado, Jason Calvin, and Dante Desoto were known as Wicked Existence. But then, just this week, they decided to change their name. And now, presenting themselves before you tonight, José, Jason, and Dante, also known as...Mystilogical!"

Courtney's jaw dropped. Annette and Kirk laughed. Marvin smirked and shrunk into his seat, knowing just what Courtney was going to say.

"Hey, that's my word!"

There was only one person who could have told them that word. Courtney glared accusingly over at Marvin.

He shrugged "They liked it."

Mr. Shagbark exited the stage. The audience applauded as the curtains opened, revealing José, Jason, and Dante, set up behind their respective instruments. José began strumming the guitar. Jason came in on the bass after a couple of measures. And then, when Dante beat harshly on the drums, the song they were playing grew significantly louder.

José craned his neck to sing into the mike. It was the same song he'd sung the day Marvin was at his house.

_That is terrific talent,_ Marvin thought, feeling a little envious. _He sings good, he plays good; he probably writes his own songs. Maybe he wasn't trying to show off. Maybe he was just doing what he does well. I probably shouldn't have left his house like I did. Now he'll probably never want to speak to me again. Man, how cool it must be to be in a band like that. I'd give anything for that kind of recognition._

It was right then and there that Marvin observed something: Mystilogical didn't have a keyboardist.

_They could use one, couldn't they? Hmmm. I wonder. No, what am I thinking? I can't play a keyboard. I don't even have one. Unless…_

Marvin suddenly had an amazing idea. An idea so amazing and so outrageous that it was scary. Scary, that is, to think that he could actually pull it off.

The song ended. The entire auditorium broke out into applauding and cheering. The three performers took a bow, and waved goodbye to the audience as the curtains closed on them.

After that, seven or eight more people came out to perform. Some people sang, others played an instrument, and one girl did a hilarious comedy routine.

Before long, the talent show was over.

Immediately after it was the award ceremony. There were two awards: Judges' Choice and People's Choice, which everyone voted for at the end.

Mystilogical won the People's Choice. Judges' Choice went to Kendra Pipher, a senior, for singing a magnificent solo.

After it was all finished, the people who had come piled out of the auditorium to go home.

"That was fun," Annette said.

"Yeah," Kirk agreed. "I enjoyed it."

"Come on," Courtney said to Annette. "Let's go congratulate Kendra."

"Let's go to the car," Kirk said to Marvin.

Marvin and Kirk exited the school to the parking lot. There, Marvin saw John Preston walking to his car.

_It's now or never,_ he thought.

"Mr. Preston!” Marvin shouted, running to him. Kirk followed accordingly.

Mr. Preston turned.

"Hello, sir. My name is Marvin Mannix." He extended his hand and Mr. Preston shook it. "Sir, may I ask you a favor?"

Kirk frowned, confused.

"Of course. What can I do for you?"

"Mr. Preston, I'm making a video. It's, um...a fantasy video. My friend Kirk is helping me film it." Marvin pointed to the camera Kirk was holding.

Now Kirk was really confused.

"Anyway, there's this one scene I want for the video where there's this old, gray-haired wizard saying a magic spell to his apprentice, and you fit the description perfectly for the old wizard. Would you do the scene for me, here, now?"

Marvin pulled a piece of folded paper out of his pocket, unfolded it, and handed it to the man.

Mr Preston read the words Marvin had put on the paper. "Oh, I suppose. I mean, if you really want me to. Shall I just read it straight from the paper?"

"Uh, yeah. Kirk will just film it as a close-up of your head, so it won't look like you're really reading it."

Marvin leaned in close to Kirk. "Just pretend to roll the camera," he whispered.

Kirk shrugged and put the camera to his eye.

Marvin pulled an ear of rainbow-colored com from his pocket. "Hold one end of it and I'll hold the other," Marvin told Mr. Preston. "That's how this wizard's spell is supposed to work."

If Marvin had really considered what he was about to do, he probably would have thought he was doing something insane. But his mind was clouded with so many other things, so he didn't.

Mr. Preston held the ear of corn and started reading the paper:

What's mine is yours

It isn't mine

My talent that is so divine

My work, so hard

My years of toil

Are what will make this spell uncoil

Marvin concentrated hard. _Talent to play the piano, talent to play the piano, talent to play the piano,_ he repeated in his mind.

My days of practice I lay down

And pass each one of them to thee

You needn't make a moment's labor

The talent you receive is free

The magic spell began to work. The talent to play the piano flowed from Mr. Preston through the magic ear of corn to Marvin.

I pass my talent on to you

And it shall be no longer mine

And all that I once knew to do

Becomes a talent which is thine

The spell was complete. Neither of them had felt it, but all the talent for playing the piano that John Preston once had was all inside of Marvin now.

Marvin looked over at Kirk. “Cut,” he said. He shook Mr. Preston’s hand once again. “Thank you, Mr. Preston, I really appreciate your help.”

Marvin grabbed Kirk hastily and walked with him towards the car.

“Good luck with the video!” Mr. Preston called.


	17. Chapter 17

"You wanna tell 'em what you did?” Kirk said to Marvin.

The four of them had gone to Moonstone and already had dinner plates set before them.

"What?" Annette questioned. "What did you do?”

Marvin twirled his spaghetti with his fork and stared down guiltily at his plate. "I used a magic spell on John Preston."

Courtney frowned and laughed at the same time. "What? When?"

"Just this evening at school."

"He did it while you two were talking to Kendra," Kirk added. "Remember that magic spell in the  _ Book of Phenomena _ called the Talent Spell? That was the one he used."

"Talent Spell?" said Annette. "What does that do?"

"It takes away somebody's talent," Kirk told her.

"You stole his talent?!" Annette raged. "With a magic spell from the book?!"

"Gosh, Annette, why don't you say it a little louder," Courtney said. "I don't think everybody in the restaurant heard you."

"You know, I don't get it," Kirk said. "I mean, I know that McMagicspell magic is good. But a spell that steals talent? That's pretty twisted, if you ask me."

Marvin shook his head. "It doesn't steal talent. It requires the cooperation of the person who has the talent. Really, he gave his talent to me, I didn't steal it."

"He thought he was doing a part for a video," Kirk reminded. "He didn't know that what he was doing was real."

"How does the spell work?" Annette asked.

"Well," Marvin began, "one of the things I had in the attic was a magic rainbow colored ear of corn. It's a magic object that's good for many things, and one of them is the Talent Spell. The talented person holds one end of the ear of corn and the talent receiver holds the other. Then the talented one recites the incantation while the receiver says in his mind what talent he wants. So, while Mr. Preston was saying the incantation, I was saying in my mind,  _ talent to play the piano, talent to play the piano _ . Then, when the spell is over, the talent has passed on from one person to another."

"And you just happened to have all that stuff with you," said Courtney.

"Well, I thought I might need it. So I wrote down the incantation and started carrying the ear of com around with me."

"So now you can play the piano and he can't?"

"Yeah."

"Why would you want to play the piano?" Annette wanted to know.

"Well, to be perfectly honest... I want to be in Mystilogical."

"What?" Kirk, Courtney, and Annette said at the same time.

"As the pianist?" said Courtney.

"No, as the keyboardist," Marvin told her. "Anybody who can play the piano can also play the keyboard. They don't have one. They need one."

"Marvin," Annette advised, "don't you realize what you've done? Don't you think John Preston is going to think it's strange when he wakes up tomorrow morning and finds out he can't play the piano anymore?”

"What's he gonna do? Go and tell somebody a teenager named Marvin stole his talent from him? Nobody he tells is going to know who I am. And even if they do, they won't believe him. They'll think he's crazy."

Annette shook her head pityingly. "And this is something you think is right."

"Well why not?!" Marvin demanded. "He's an old man who's retired! He doesn't need it. I do. This is important. If I'm ever going to make José our final Magic Maker, I need to get to know him. This is the best way.”


	18. Chapter 18

The next day was Sunday. Courtney and Annette had promised that they would take Marvin to the mall that day.

It was early in the afternoon when Marvin came down the stairs. He opened the front door to go out onto the porch, but stopped.

From the foyer, he could easily see his parents sitting in the nearby parlor, talking. He went in.

They both looked worried.

"Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. What's up?"

Mr. Mannix looked up at him. "Someone filed a report at the station today. Aunt Marissa is missing."

Marvin almost laughed. It actually took them that long to figure it out?

"Oh my gosh!" Marvin said, pretending to be shocked. "Since when?”

"Apparently no one has seen her in almost three weeks," Mr. Mannix said.

"It's incredible," Mrs. Mannix said, shaking her head. "First Mark dies, and now Marissa is missing... I can't believe how much our lives have changed in so short a time."

_You think_ your _lives have changed?_ Marvin thought. _Take a look at mine._

Marvin observed his parents very well. The look on their faces was not a sad, depressed one, like the kind they'd had when the news came that Grandpa Mark had died. Instead it was more of a pensive, perplexed, "dear me, what is Marissa up to this time?" look.

Marissa was family -- sort of -- so both of Marvin's parents tried to act like they liked her. But Marvin saw right through that. There were times when he wondered if maybe they actually did know that Marissa was a witch.

"That's bad," Marvin said. "I hope somebody finds Aunt Marissa soon."

The doorbell rang.

"That'll be the girls," Marvin said. "Bye-bye."

Marvin rushed out of the parlor, leaving his confused parents behind with the mystery.

"Hi, Marvin," Annette said when he'd opened the front door.

"Ready?" said Courtney.

"Yep."

Marvin shut the door, and the three of them went out to the curb and climbed into Mrs. Mancina's car. And then they were off to the mall.

* * *

"Isn't this the prettiest thing in the world?" Courtney asked, pulling out of a shopping bag a skirt she'd bought from XOXO.

"I guess so," Marvin answered.

"What do you mean you guess so?" Courtney demanded. "Is it pretty or isn't it?"

Marvin took a swig of his Icee. "It's gorgeous, Courtney," he said flatly.

"That's more like it." Courtney smiled smugly and put the skirt back in the bag.

"Listen," Annette said, "as soon as Courtney's done with her shopping, we'll go where you want to go.”

"What about your shopping?" Marvin asked Annette.

"Um...well...to be honest, I kinda wanted to take a look in Old Navy, but these shoes I got will be enough for today."

"No rush. I've never been to this mall before. It's cool getting to see it and look around. It's even more cool that I get to do it with you guys. Courtney and Annette: professional shoppers."

"Hey, want to go to Virgin Megastore?" Courtney suggested.

"Of course."

When the three of them reached Virgin Megastore, Marvin caught sight of something: another store, a bit of a distance away. The very store he'd come to the mall to find.

A musical instrument store.

Marvin's heart pounded with excitement. Just a walk over there and he'd have his keyboard.

"Um, you guys go on in," Marvin said. "I'm gonna go somewhere else. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Courtney and Annette shrugged and went into the store.

Marvin walked swiftly to the instrument store. The first thing he saw as he went in was a large, black, musical keyboard, elevated on a stand.

Marvin stepped over to the keyboard in awe. He flipped the "on" switch, and the dials and toggles above the keys lit up.

One of the dials let you choose what instrument you wanted your playing to sound like. Marvin switched it to simple "piano".

Marvin placed his fingers delicately on the black and white keys. And then he started playing.

Marvin yelped and jumped back. Amazing! He'd never touched a piano in his life, and just now, thanks to the talent spell, he had played the opening notes of Clementi's Sonatina Op. 36 No. 6 in D Major.

Marvin held up his hands and stared at them. "I don't believe it," he whispered.

"Sir," a female employee said. "Can I help you with something?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'd like to buy this keyboard. How much does it cost?"

"This one? Ah. This is one of our best ones. It's two hundred and fifty dollars. That includes the keyboard as well as the stand."

"Two hundred and fifty, huh?" Marvin took out his inheritance money. "I'll take it."

* * *

"I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady, all you other Slim Shadys are just imitating," Courtney chanted mindlessly as they walked out of Virgin. "So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, please stand up, please stand up."

"If you like Eminem so much then why didn't you buy his CD?" Annette wanted to know.

"Nah," Courtney said. "He cusses too much. I only like that one song. No need to buy the whole CD."

Just then, the girls caught sight of Marvin, walking towards the mall exit with a large box in his arms.

"What are you doing?” Courtney demanded. "What is that?"

Marvin didn't stop walking. "Oh, nothing. Just a little something I spent two hundred and fifty bucks on."

Annette glanced at the words printed on the side of the box. "You spent two hundred and fifty dollars on a keyboard?"

"Duh-uh," Marvin said. "Mystilogical?" he reminded her.

"You really want this bad, don't you?" Courtney said, like she was only just now getting it.

"But where did you ever get that much money?"

"From the same guy we got our magic powers from," he told her.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to admit, Marvin is starting to become what I would call an unlikable character, in this chapter especially. But I have plans for him. And I mean ones that extend beyond this book.

Marvin wasted no time. He went immediately over to José's house.

José wasn't there, but Jason and Dante were.

"José's parents are cool," Jason explained. "They let us use the garage even when José isn't home."

Marvin showed the keyboard to the two of them and told them his little proposition". Both of them were speechless. He also gave them a little sample of his talent.

"What was that?” Dante asked when Marvin was finished.

"Berlioz," he answered. "I can also play Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and Liszt. I know a little Mendelssohn, but I'm still familiarizing myself."

"Ooookay. Um, can you play anything like what we play?"

"Oh, sure, no problem.”

Marvin stood in front of the keyboard and placed his fingers on them once again.

This time, however, the music didn't come to him.

His talent was to play classical music. Marvin had assumed that he could use the ability of knowing the keys to play the songs he and other teenagers knew well, but it wasn't so. He had no notes, no practice. He couldn't just come straight out and play anything, no matter how talented he was. It wasn't that easy.

Marvin looked up from the keys. "Um, actually, I haven't practiced much with the type of music you guys play."

"Okay," Dante said. "So you don't know our type of music, but you want to be in our band. I'm sorry, I don't think I understand where your mind is going."

"I thought it sounded good," Jason complimented.

"Yeah, for a symphony orchestra," Dante added. "That's not what we are. We're Mystilogical. Until a week ago we were Wicked Existence. I tolerated you changing our name. But this time I'm gonna have to say something. We are a punk band, and the last thing we need in our group is a wannabe tinkling the ivories."

A wannabe. That pretty much said it.

Marvin took his keyboard and left the house.

Jason followed.

"Ignore Dante," he said. "That's just the way he is sometimes."

"He hates me," Marvin said darkly. "So does José."

"No, José thinks you're cool."

Marvin's eyebrows rose. Surprise surprise.

"Oh, really."

"Yeah. He said so."

"Right. Wish I could believe it."

"Marvin, as one of José's closest friends, may I please ask, where did he go wrong?"

Marvin sighed and looked down at the ground. "He didn't. I'm the one who went wrong. I'm the one with the voices in my head that keep telling me everyone's against me. Voices that can't forget the past." He sighed again. "What am I gonna do now?"

Jason smiled. "You sounded really good. With that kind of talent, you'd be perfect for Mystilogical. Just practice for a while, and come back when you're ready. We'd really like to have you in our band. Well, at least I would."

Marvin nodded. "Okay."

Marvin left and Jason went back inside.

"Why do you have to be so mean?" Jason said to Dante.

"What do you mean, mean? I'm not mean. I'm...frank. Blunt. Straightforward. Come on. If l was mean to people, do you think I would be so popular?"

* * *

"So? What do you think?"

Marvin was home again. The others were there too. He'd just finished playing a classical piece.

"Not bad," said Kirk.

"What was that?" Courtney asked.

"Bach," Marvin replied. "But that's the last time I'm gonna play it. Jason said I could be in Mystilogical if I practiced with punk music, so I've got a lot of work to do. Now, I'm gonna attempt to play Blink 182. Don't be afraid to tell me if it sounds really bad."

"Are you sure about this?" said Annette.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you just spent two hundred and fifty bucks on something. If I spent that much money on something, on anything, my parents wouldn't just stand back and say nothing. Besides that, don't you think your parents are going to find it enormously strange that you didn't used to know how to play but now you do? And what are you gonna tell them? You said you didn't want them to know about the magic.”

“What is with you?" Marvin said. "Ever since last night you've been on me about this. Is it such a crime for me to want to be good at something?"

For a few seconds it was quiet. Then Annette shook her head. "No. It's not."

It was quiet again for a few more seconds. Annette continued softly.

"Everyone wants that. I did too. I bet you didn't know this, but I play the violin. It took me years to get good, and when I finally did, I felt really good about myself. I think it's important to feel that way about yourself. If being able to play makes you feel good, then that's great. If being in José's band makes you feel good, great. Whatever's right for you."

Annette turned and looked at Courtney and Kirk. "Come on guys. Let's go. We should leave Marvin alone for a little while so he can practice."

Then they left.

Marvin placed his hands on the keys. He held them up and looked at them.

_Whatever's right for me._

John Preston had been playing the piano since he was a boy. He had developed his talent through years and years of work. And then, in just one night, all of it had gone to Marvin.

He hadn't had to practice for decades. All he'd had to do was trick Mr. Preston into saying a magic incantation. That was it. That's all he did, and a lifetime of playing piano had gone straight to him.

_Whatever feels good._

Marvin looked at his hands. He clenched them into fists.

It wasn't right.

The whole thing wasn't right. It was wrong. Just wrong. It was wrong to misuse magic and misuse people that way. It was wrong to think that you could have everything for nothing.

It was wrong and it was a lie. Even if he did get to be in Mystilogical, Dante would still loathe him. Jason would still feel sorry for him. He'd still feel awkward around José.

He had lied to himself in thinking that joining the band would change things.

Marvin decided then and there that he was going to turn things around. He immediately put his keyboard away in his bedroom closet, then returned downstairs to look in the phone book for the address of a man named John Preston.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I really can't say that I like the way Marvin snapped at Annette. And how he was treating the whole situation as though his actions were justified and he was in the right. But, that's how I wrote it, oh so many years ago, and that's how it stays.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate this chapter. But, I have to honor the person I was at the time I wrote it, so here it is.

When Marvin had found the address, he located the street on a road map, then took a bus down there.

Once he got to John Preston's house, he rang the doorbell several times, but nobody answered.

A woman with graying hair was gardening in the next yard. She was crouched down beside her garden, working with a trowel.

Marvin ran over to her.

"Scuse me, Ma'am, do you know if Mr. Preston is home?"

The woman straightened up. "No, he isn't."

"Where is he?"

The woman looked sad. "I'm afraid he's at the hospital."

Marvin was stunned. "What?"

"He was taken to the hospital this morning in an ambulance. The paramedics told me he'd suffered a heart attack."

"Oh, no." Marvin could not believe it. It was the absolute last thing he'd expected would happen.

"That's awful," he said. "Just awful! Hey, who are you, anyway? Are you his friend?"

The woman nodded. "Yeah, John and I know each other well. I do hope he's all right. The man is a dear. I don't know how I would feel if he...you know, if he didn't pull through."

"Believe me, you have no idea."

* * *

Marvin got on another bus, this time to the hospital. It was dark by the time he got there. He entered and proceeded straight to the front desk. The lady at the desk was talking on the phone.

"Pardon me," he interrupted. "A man came in here today named John Preston, and I need to know if he's all right."

The lady stopped talking and put her hand over the mouthpiece. "I'm sorry, sir, I don't have such information. And besides, I'm in the middle of an important phone call."

"Isn't there somebody who can tell me?"

"Sir, if you'll just wait a moment, please."

"Wait for what?" Marvin demanded. "For who? For nobody to tell me if a man I got my talent from is alive or dead? For all you doctors to just keep on doing whatever it is you're doing instead of helping me out? I don't think so. I've seen this on movies and TV before. But I never thought that it actually happened in hospitals. I mean, what am I, anyway? A character in a book?”

The desk lady looked up at him, surprised.

Marvin's eyebrows rose. He was surprised at himself too.

He could tell he was overreacting. So he cooled down.

_ Okay, stay calm. It's all right. Everything will be fine. Just be patient. _

"I'm sorry," Marvin said.

"If you'll just have a seat over there," she said, "someone will be with you in a minute." She pointed to a row of seats nearby.

"Thank you."

Marvin sat and waited there for about ten minutes, which was just enough time to become flooded with a lot of different emotions. It was enough time to feel totally guilty and ashamed for having blown up at the desk lady. Time to feel like an idiot for saying John Preston was the "man I got my talent from". Time to feel worried out of his mind about what was going to happen to John Preston.

Before long, a doctor wearing a long, white, doctor's coat appeared in front of him.

Marvin stood up. Looking him in the eye, he saw that the doctor was shorter than him.

"Hello. My name is Dr. Cook. I was treating John Preston. You are?"

"Marvin. Marvin Mannix."

"Are you related to Mr. Preston?"

"No."

"Then you're a friend."

"Well, I only met him last night...but yeah, I'm his friend.”

The doctor sighed. "I've got some bad news."

"Oh no. Please tell me he's okay," Marvin begged.

"I'm afraid he isn't. I'm sorry. Mr. Preston has passed away."

Marvin felt cold fingers wrap around his heart.

"No," he whispered.

"I'm terribly sorry," the doctor said sadly, even though this was something he'd probably had to do over a thousand times.

Marvin laughed. It wasn't a humorous laugh, though, more of an exasperated one.

"I don't believe it. He plays for the talent show one day and then dies the next."

A grim expression tore across Marvin's face then. An expression that made him appear angry and sad and bitter and stupefied all at once.

"I'm sure he was a very good man," Dr. Cook said. "It's all right, let it out."

"You don't understand," Marvin said. "You couldn't. I took his talent away. I just grabbed it away, for goodness sake! The reason I came was so I could give it back to him. And what happens? I find out he's dead. All it took for me to figure out that what I did was wrong and that I had to give him his talent back was one day. One day, that's it. And he dies? Is this supposed to tell me that one day is too long?!"

Dr. Cook grabbed Marvin by the wrists. "Marvin, slow down. You're talking nonsense.”

"Let go of me!" He jerked his wrists away. "Look, I'm not delirious, okay!"

Dr. Cook didn't say anything. He just looked at Marvin silently.

I swear, Marvin could have torn the man's throat out right at that moment if he hadn't had the sense not to. He didn't like the way he was looking at him strangely.

Marvin was very mad. Very mad at everything.

He was mad that John Preston had died.

Mad at himself for casting the Talent Spell in the first place.

Mad that they didn't want him in Mystilogical.

Mad that Dante was such a mean jerk.

Mad that making friends with José wasn't going to be as easy as making friends with Kirk and the others had been.

Mad that Grandpa Mark had died.

Mad that Marissa had gotten away with killing him.

And more than anything else, he was mad that the whole world was so full of evil.

Evil everywhere. Evil inside of every nook and cranny. Inside of every living being.

Even inside of him.

Marvin had cast the Talent Spell to have John Preston's talent. And now that he had died, the talent was his forever.

Forever

Marvin pointed an angry finger at the doctor.

"People do not come to the hospital to die! They come to live! When someone comes in here who's having a heart attack, you save them! You do not let them DIE!"

And then he ran out of the hospital.


	21. Chapter 21

Marvin took a third bus home. He got there just in time to have dinner with his parents.

It was something that they'd always done. The Mannix's were a small family, the three of them, but still they managed to remain close through the years and always sit down and have dinner together.

On this particular night, however, Marvin wasn't all that hungry.

"Marvin? Sweetheart?" Mrs. Mannix said. "Are you okay? You've hardly touched your plate."

Marvin looked up from his plate of food that he'd spent the last ten minutes picking at with a fork. "I'm just not hungry, I guess," he muttered quietly.

"Is something wrong?" Mr. Mannix asked. "Anything you want to tell us?"

Marvin took a good, long look at his parents.

First his father. His amazing, astounding father who he was so proud of. His father who spent each day protecting and serving the community they lived in.

And then his mother. His sweet, wonderful, mother who after spending all day cooking at Moonstone, didn't mind coming home and preparing one more meal for her family.

Marvin knew that his parents loved him. And he loved them too. Marvin wondered:  _ Would my parents want me to be fighting Chumicks, even if I do have magical powers? _

Both of his parents were people who he could trust. But he also wanted to protect them.

He knew his father faced crime and violence almost every day. He didn't want him to have to worry about the threat of the supernatural as well.

And his mother, who was perfectly content to just come home after work each day and eat with her husband and son whom she loved and adored. He'd hate for that to be ruined.

Mom and Dad were just better off not knowing.

"No, nothing's wrong."

"You're awfully quiet," his dad said.

“Just thinking, that's all. It's all right. I'm okay. I promise.”

"Guess what?" his mom said. “We have chocolate cake for dessert. If you clean half of your plate, you can have some."

"Mom, I'm fifteen years old. You still think you can bribe me with dessert?"

Mrs. Mannix got up and took her and Mr. Mannix's plates from the table. "Did it work?"

Marvin grinned sheepishly and began eating. "Yeah."

* * *

For the next week and a half, the Magic Makers pretty much just took a break from magic. They knew Marvin was upset by what had happened, but they also knew he'd get back on his horse when he was ready. So they just let him be.

Marvin shut his keyboard up in his bedroom closet. He didn't play it at all. He didn't want his parents to find out he knew how to play, and he also kinda hoped that by neglecting it he'd forget how.

Marvin didn't go to John Preston's funeral. He didn't want to. He didn't like going to funerals. The only reason he'd gone to Grandpa Mark's funeral was because he knew his parents wanted him to.

It was Wednesday of the next week when he finally had enough courage to go and visit the cemetery. His friends came along with him.

They found his headstone. There were flowers on it and around it.

The epitaph read:

JOHN MICHAEL PRESTON

Beloved Father and Grandfather

Beautifully Talented Pianist

Kirk smiled. "Hey, he was a grandfather too."

"And his middle name was Michael," Marvin added. "Same as mine."

"It ought to say: 'Beautifully Talented Pianist Until One Day Before He Died',"Courtney said.

Marvin didn't get upset when she said that, because it was true.

Annette put a bouquet of flowers on his grave.

Marvin had two bouquets. He put one on John Preston's stone. The other was for someone else.

"Rest in peace, John Preston," Annette whispered. And then they walked away from his grave.

They went a distance through the cemetery before coming to another headstone. This one said:

MARK MAXWELL MANNIX

Marvin stepped forward and put the flowers on his grandfather's grave. He began to cry.

His friends hugged him and comforted him. Courtney gave him a tissue.

Marvin wiped away his tears. "John Preston died of a heart attack," he said. "They said that that was how my Grandpa died."

"They  _ said _ that?" Kirk repeated.

"What really happened?" Courtney asked.

"Marissa killed him."

The others didn't say anything. Apparently they weren't surprised.

"Mr. Preston died the day after I took his talent. Strange, huh?"

"It had nothing to do with the spell," Annette said. "You know it didn't. He would have died whether or not you had cast it. He was an old man. It was just his time.”

"Besides," Kirk mentioned, at least you  _ tried _ to give him his talent back."

"Yeah," Marvin said bitterly. "I tried." Like that meant jack squat.

Marvin knelt down in front of Mark's grave. "Am I going the right way, Grandpa?" he asked, as if he'd get an answer. "Am I what you'd hoped I would be? Am I a good McMagicspell?”

No response came, of course. But somehow, just then, Marvin began to have a very warm feeling.

He remembered the dream. The voice that told him to give the fifth necklace to José.

He knew it wasn't just a coincidence. He knew that this voice that had talked to him for several nights in a row was not just some fragment of his subconscious bubbling up in his brain while he slept. He believed that the voice was one of a real person, talking to him in his dreams.

He knew it wasn't his grandfather talking in the dreams. But it was probably somebody else, just as great and wonderful and brave and noble as Grandpa Mark had been.

There is indeed a lot of evil in the world. But there is also a lot of good, sometimes in places you'd least expect to find any. Good people, with good hearts and good spirits. Good souls who are strong and fight for the victory of all that is good.

"You know," Annette said, “Mr. Preston isn't completely dead. A part of him still lives on in you, Marvin. You have his talent. You have his ability to play the piano like a dream. I think that's really neat. You're gonna make a great keyboardist for Mystilogical."

Marvin looked over at Annette. He looked at Kirk and Courtney too. And he smiled. He knew them all well. And he knew that they were good. And despite how he had felt earlier, he knew that he was good too.

Each of them had powers that they could use in their fight against evil. They will never be able to eliminate all evil in the world, no matter what they do. But at least they could defend what is already good, and allow all of it to be safe. The world may be evil, but that doesn't mean it can't be safe.

Marvin nodded. "You're right, Annette." He clutched his necklace. "And a part of Grandpa Mark lives on too, in the five of us. I mean, the four of us. But you know what? I'm not gonna wait any longer. I'm gonna do what the dream said. I'm going right now to give José his necklace and make him the fifth Magic Maker. I'm gonna make it the five of us.”

Courtney's eyes shifted, as though she felt guilty about something. "Uh, Marvin? I already made it the five of us."

Marvin stopped dead in his tracks. "What?"

"I took the liberty of giving José the necklace myself.”

"Why would you do that?" Annette asked.

"Well, I was afraid that Marvin wasn't going to do it. And I wanted José to be a Magic Maker. He'd make the perfect addition to our team."

"When did you give it to him?" Marvin demanded.

"The day before the talent show," Courtney answered.

"But how were you able to get it without me knowing?"

"Remember that day when we were all at your house in the study and I got up for a potty break? Well, after I was out of the bathroom, I went up to the attic and got the necklace out of the box. I guess you haven't looked in the box since then. It's been empty the whole time."

"What did you tell him?"

"Not very much. Just that Marvin wanted him to have it, and that the four of us each had one too, and we all had them for a special reason. You know, basically the same thing you told us instead of telling us what we were really in for like you should've.”

"When is the next new moon?" Marvin asked hastily.

"It was last night,” Annette said. "Didn't you feel it?"

"Last night?!” Marvin panicked. "That means he's had powers all day!”

"Don't worry," Courtney said. "I also added the don't-tell-anybody-but-us part."

  
"We have to get to him fast," Marvin said. "I think the safest thing to do is to give him the  _ whole  _ secret."


	22. Chapter 22

Meanwhile, in the dimension, Marissa waited.

And waited. And waited. And waited.

Two weeks went by, and there was no sign of Centromere.

Two weeks in an empty dimension allows a person lots of time to think. And Marissa did think.

She was a Chumick now, and she knew that there was nothing she could do about it. At the same time, she reasoned that the most sensible thing to do was to make the best of it. Sure, she could never be human again. But was that really a bad thing?

Humans have to die. Chumicks don't. They are immortal. Besides, now that she was a Chumick, Marissa had the opportunity to gain powers, just as Centromere had acquired the power to open portals to other dimensions.

Imagine, having powers. Being able to do things mortals can't.

Besides all of that, who knows what other sorts of advantages there were to being a Chumick? There could be many.

Come to think of it, maybe getting the McMagicspell magic wasn't all that important after all.

Marissa turned all of these things over in her mind again and again. She was beginning to think that maybe she didn't want to have the magic anymore. Maybe she wanted something else. Something better.

Maybe.

And then, suddenly, a brilliant flash of light! Then a loud rumble, like thunder.

Then darkness again.

Marissa quickly got to her feet.

"Centromere, where have you been?!”

Centromere appeared through the mist. "I have a way for you to return to the mortal world."

"Yeah, right," Marissa snapped. "And then come back through the Tunnel of Fire? Forget it."

"No," he said. "I have a way for you to go back to stay."

Marissa cocked an eyebrow, interested. "Have you?"

"Yes. With this."

Centromere pulled out of his cloak a shiny, silver dagger.

Marissa jumped back. The dagger was a scary looking thing. She was afraid his next move was to slice her throat with it.

"I had to search through eight different dimensions to find this. It's very powerful. In this dagger lies one of the most easy ways to acquire a guise."

"Acquire a what?" Marissa asked.

"Guise."

"What is a guise?”

"It's a mortal-like skin covering. Being guised makes you immune to the Tunnel of Fire. It also makes you look like an ordinary mortal, so McMagicspells and other warriors of good won't be able to recognize you as easily."

"How is that thing supposed to give me a guise?" Marissa wanted to know.

"There are several ways for a Chumick to become guised. Unfortunately, most of those methods are difficult and take time. This one, however, isn't very hard at all. All you have to do is go to the mortal world and hunt out a McMagicspell. When you find one, you plunge the dagger into their flesh. The McMagicspell blood on the blade and the dagger in your hand will give you your guise immediately. So, all you have to do is go and find your nephew, what's-his-name McMagicspell and...you know the rest."

Marissa smiled. "Interesting."

"Yes, indeed," Centromere agreed. "For eighty years, all Chumicks far and wide thought that the McMagicspells had died out. But now you and I both know that that isn't true. When we get our hands on the McMagicspell magic, we'll be famous! Or at least I'll be famous. I don't know what you plan to do with it."

"Hold on a minute," Marissa said. "If this guising dagger thingy is such an easy way to become guised, then how come you don't use it? How come you don't go and get the magic yourself?"

Centromere looked away. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because. The guising dagger only works on one who was a mortal less than a year ago."

"You were never mortal?"

"Not less than a year ago."

"But you were at one time."

"That's for me to know and you not to know."

Marissa smirked. "You know, the correct mortal world expression is 'for me to know and you to find out'."

"How about this mortal world expression," Centromere barked. "Mind your own business."

"Admit it, Centromere. You were a mortal once. I know you were. How else would you know how to speak English if you didn't once live in an English-speaking mortal world country?"

"Maybe I learned it from having to listen to you for two weeks."

"No way. Nobody can learn a language that fast."

"How do you know? You don't know everything there is to know about Chumicks. You've only been one for a month. And you've been here the whole time. You don't know anything."

"Yeah, no kidding," Marissa said. "As a matter of fact, I wonder. Are there really Chumicks -- guised Chumicks -- that live in the mortal world like normal people?"

"Of course," Centromere said. "There's a whole society of them in London, England."

Marissa's eyebrows rose. Hearing that sparked her interest. Perhaps that was the better something she'd expected.

"All right, down to business." Centromere took out a scroll and unrolled it. "This is the contract you must sign."

"Contract?" Marissa took it from him and read it.

It said:

I HEREBY AGREE THAT ONCE I HAVE ENTERED THE MORTAL WORLD THROUGH THE PORTAL THAT CENTROMERE SHALL OPEN FOR ME, AND HAVE RETRIEVED THE McMAGICSPELL MAGIC, I SHALL THEN BE AUTOMATICALLY TRANSPORTED BACK TO THE DIMENSION THROUGH A SECOND PORTAL, AT WHICH TIME I SHALL DIVIDE HALF OF THE MAGIC WITH CENTROMERE. I SHALL THEN BE RETURNED TO THE MORTAL WORLD WITH MY HALF. IN AGREEING TO THIS, I AUTOMATICALLY AM GIVEN RIGHTS TO THE GUISING DAGGER, WHICH I PLAN TO USE TO BECOME GUISED.

SIGNED,

___________________________

"You get your guise, I get my half of the magic." Centromere said.

"Sounds okay to me," Marissa said.

"Then sign." He handed her a quill pen.

Marissa signed her name neatly on the line, then handed the contract back to Centromere.

He rolled up the scroll. "It's a deal then."

Marissa extended her palm. "Well, go ahead. Open the portal."

Centromere waved his hand.

"Oh, and make this one over land, please."

The portal opened. Marissa stepped through it.

Onward she went back to the mortal world, to spread her evil once again.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: The words "bloody knife" are used in this chapter, and "oozing blood" in the next chapter, but that's the extent of it. My apologies to anyone who is easily squicked out, but you'll see I put "Non-Graphic Violence" in the tags, and I stand by that, because I don't think what I've written comes anywhere close to qualifying as graphic.
> 
> Fair warning, all the same.

Kirk and the other Magic Makers drove over to Marvin's house.

"Okay," Marvin said to Kirk after he and the girls had gotten out of the car by the curb. "You drive over to José's house and bring him over. Once he sees the attic and the book and the ingredients and Abey, he'll have to believe what we tell him."

Kirk nodded.

"Annette and Courtney and I will hang out here until you get back."

And with that, Kirk restarted the car's engine and drove off.

"Let's go inside," Marvin said.

Marvin, Courtney, and Annette walked through the front gate and across the yard, over to the front porch of the house. Marvin reached into his pocket for his key. All he felt was emptiness.

"Uh-oh."

"What uh-oh?" Courtney demanded.

Marvin gulped. "Um, I...I don't have my key."

"What?" said Annette.

"Terrific," bemoaned Courtney.

"Where is it?"

"I guess I must have forgotten to bring it with me to school today. It must be in the house somewhere."

The three of them checked the back door. It was locked. They checked all the windows. Also locked.

There was no way in.

Frustrated, they sat down on the front porch swing and thought. They thought, and thought, and thought for several minutes.

"Let's just break a window," Annette finally said.

"Let's not," replied Marvin. "My parents'll get so mad."

Then Courtney jumped up. "Abey!"

Annette looked around. "Where?"

"Nowhere, Annette, I was just going to say that Abey could get the key for us."

"Yes!" Marvin exclaimed. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"You said the key was in the house, right? Well, so is Abey. We could call him out of the attic and tell him to get the key for us from wherever it is in the house. Then he could fly back out through the hole in the attic roof and bring the key to us in his talons."

Marvin got up. "Good idea, Courtney." He walked off the porch and onto the grass. He turned around, put his hands by his mouth, and shouted up towards the roof: "ABEY!!!"

No answer.

He shouted again. "ABEY!!!"

Still no answer.

He shouted again and again. There was no reply from Abey.

"Why isn't he answering?" Annette wanted to know.

"He must be somewhere else."

"But he's a pigeon. Where would he go?"

"He likes to go fly sometimes. And besides, he has to eat. He's probably in the park somewhere."

Courtney and Annette sat back down on the swing, disappointed.

"Don't worry." Marvin went and sat on the rail on the left end of the porch. "He'll probably be back soon."

And then, the worst thing that could have happened, happened.

Marissa appeared out of nowhere! She snuck up behind Marvin, raised the guising dagger and...

“Marvin!" Courtney cried. “Look out!"

But it was too late. Before Marvin even got the chance to turn his head around to look, the evil Chumick Marissa plunged the dagger into his back.

Marvin screamed! The pain! The awful, awful pain!

He instantly collapsed facedown onto the wooden porch.

Courtney and Annette screamed in terror. Their friend had just been stabbed! Marissa hoisted herself over the railing and pulled the bloody knife out of Marvin's back. It began no sooner than she had touched it.

The guise began to spread across her hand. Then over her arm. Then over her whole body, covering her completely with skin the color of a human's.

Marissa once again looked like just an ordinary Caucasian human. She had done as Centromere had instructed. She had put the magic guising dagger into the flesh of a McMagicspell. She had been guised.

Courtney and Annette stepped off the porch and backed away. Marissa followed slowly after them, dagger in hand.

The girls looked over at Marvin, who lay still on the porch. Was he dead?

They had never been more full of fear in their entire lives.

Courtney knew she had to do something. But what?

Use her powers and fight the witch, that's what.

Courtney shut her eyes and concentrated. She instantly became invisible.

"What?" Marissa said, thinking the girl had just vanished.

Courtney ran behind Marissa, leaped onto her back, and grappled onto her neck.

But Marissa was stronger, her reflexes better. She grabbed the invisible Courtney and threw her over her shoulder.

Courtney landed hard on her back. The wind and the invisibility were knocked out of her.

Marissa looked down at Courtney in rage. Then she glared at Annette. An evil grin spread across her mouth as she charged at her with the knife.

Annette yelped! But then...

Up she went as she leaped high into the air!

Human beings can barely jump a single foot into the air. But Annette had just jumped several times her own height.

And there she stayed, just floating in midair. No way could Marissa reach her.

No matter, she decided to go for Courtney, who still lay winded on the ground. She began to move away, but not nearly quickly enough.

Annette looked up in the sky. A small, gray bird came flying fast.

Abey.

"Courtney!" he cried. "I'll help you!"

“Abey, no!” Annette shouted. She grabbed him in her hands as he flew by. “She’s got a knife.”

“But she’s going to kill Marvin!”

Annette began sobbing. “She already has.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah. Marvin forgot his key. Lame, right? If I were to write this today, I'd probably have Marissa figure out that the lock was changed by the spell Marvin cast, and use her knowledge of witchcraft to reverse it so that Marvin's key wouldn't work. But, this is how I wrote it, so this is how it stays.


	24. Chapter 24

Marissa was on top of Courtney. She thrust the knife at her, but Courtney grabbed her wrist and held it away. The point of the knife was just an inch away from her face.

She knew she couldn't hold it there for long. There was no way that she was going to win against a Chumick.

And then, a ray of hope arrived. From up in the air, Annette saw Kirk and José arriving in the car over by the curb. They could help.

But right now, it was Annette who had to help. She let Abey go, and he flew into the nearest tree. He'd help if he had to, but for now it was probably best to let Courtney and Annette handle it.

Annette hovered over Marissa and Courtney and let the magic force that held her cease. Immediately she fell.

She landed right on Marissa, shoving her away. Annette helped Courtney up.

Marissa staggered to her feet. But by now, Kirk had seen what was going on. He bolted from the car and hit his wrists together. José caught up.

Marissa froze. Everything froze.

"Whoa, do you feel that?" José said, noticing the disappearance of temperature. "What is that?"

But then he and Kirk looked over at what was on the porch. And they noticed that Courtney and Annette were holding each other and crying.

José looked at Marissa, saw the knife, and jumped back. But then he noticed that she wasn't moving. Looking around, he saw that nothing was. It was very mysteriously quiet.

Time was frozen. And since José was wearing a magic necklace, he, like the other Magic Makers, was not frozen.

Kirk, Courtney, and Annette ran over to the porch. José followed them.

There Marvin lay, facedown, perfectly still, the wound from the knife oozing blood on his back.

"Oh, no!" Kirk averted his eyes from the grim sight.

Annette took out her cell phone. "I'm calling 911. We need an ambulance," she sniffled.

"No!" said Kirk. "They won't get here in time. We need Icelandic Hail Water."

"What?” Courtney said, wiping her eyes.

"It's magic water that heals. It healed me when I got burned."

"But the house is locked up!" Annette raged.

"Where's Abey?" Kirk said. "He can go inside and get the bottle for us."

"Abey's in the tree," Annette said. "And he's frozen. Besides, the bottle is probably too big and heavy for a pigeon to carry anyway."

"I can unfreeze him. Then he can put a spell on it, like the one he put on the  _ Book of Phenomena _ ."

"There's no time to make a spell!" Courtney argued. "He'll have to go inside and get the key to the front door so we can get in and get the bottle."

"There's no time for that either!" Annette yelled. "This is nuts! Marvin's going to die if we don't do something right now! He may have already!" Tears were streaming down her face. "I'm calling an ambulance now!"

Annette began dialing on her phone. But it didn't work. It's absolutely impossible to make a call while time is frozen. The connection couldn't be made, and whoever was at the other end wouldn't be able to pick up.

Kirk checked his watch, and just in time. Time was about to restart. As soon as it did, he froze it again, to keep Marissa at bay.

"José?" Courtney said. "What are you doing?"

They all looked. José was standing in front of the locked front door, looking up and down at it. He placed his hand on it and felt its texture. Then he stepped forward.

And walked right through it.

The others stood gaping, mouths wide open.

José had just used his powers to sublime and pass directly through a solid door. It was just as the  _ Book of Phenomena  _ had said.

They heard the door unlock from the inside. Then it opened and José stepped back out.

Without missing a beat, they all ran to the door and inside the house.

Kirk dashed up the stairs to the attic and retrieved the bottle of Icelandic Hail Water from where it rested on a shelf. Then he ran back down the stairs and outside to the porch again.

The bottle of Icelandic Hail Water, which was about the size of a wine bottle, was more than half full. Kirk unfroze it, so the water would pour freely, then he emptied out all of it onto Marvin's wound. The Magic Makers held each other, cried, and prayed. If this didn't work, nothing would.


	25. Chapter 25

At first nothing seemed to happen. But then, very slowly, the stab wound began to grow smaller. Then faster and faster, it grew smaller and smaller and smaller. In a matter of seconds the wound was completely healed, and all that was left was a scar and a soaked back.

Marvin continued to lay motionless for a few seconds. But then he began to stir and moan.

Yes! He was alive! The other Magic Makers all smiled, flooded with relief.

But the relief quickly went away. The second minute had ended and time once again restarted.

The four Magic Makers stood up, stepped in front of Marvin, and faced Marissa, who stood on the front lawn. She turned and faced them.

Marvin lifted his head. He looked up at the others standing in front of him. He was perfectly okay now, so he too quickly got up and stood with them.

Marissa's eyebrows rose. "So. Five of you now, huh? Looks like your little team is complete, Marvin. Congratulations."

"You want to try something, Marissa?" he said.

Marissa considered the moment. She was standing in front of the house of Marvin, facing him and his four necklace-wearing friends. What was she to do? Run past them up the stairs to the attic and grab all the magic and make a break for it? No way. They'd stop her any way imaginable.

Marissa knew how powerful they were. But despite that, she was certain that they wouldn't do anything to her if she didn't do anything. That is, anything they were noticing.

Now was not the time.

"No, that's okay," she answered. "I've got my guise, so now I'll go. Thanks for letting me stab you, Marvin. Adieu."

Marissa turned around and walked away from the scene, certain to return. For this was anything but over.

Kirk held up the empty bottle upside-down. "Well, there goes the Icelandic Hail Water. I sure hope nobody gets hurt again. 'Cause if they do, they'll have to heal the natural way."

"Kirk!" Marvin said upon seeing the bottle. "You saved my life!"

Kirk smiled. "Actually, you have José to thank. He's the one who sublimed through the front door so we were able to get inside and get the bottle."

Marvin looked at José blankly. José looked back blankly.

"Thanks, José," he finally spit out. "You're okay."

"Um, yeah, you're welcome," José said. "You're okay too."

Annette grimaced. "That's it? That's all you guys are gonna say?"

Kirk smiled and put his hands on his sister's shoulders from behind. "It's enough. For now."

It was then that Marvin realized why the voice had instructed to choose José to be the fifth Magic Maker. It was that course of events that would lead to José being there at just the right time and saving Marvin from what otherwise would have been certain death.

Becoming Jose's friend would not be as easy as it had been becoming friends with the others. There were still quite a few rough edges that needed to be smoothed out before they could really be friends.

Still, at that moment, Marvin saw José standing there on the front porch of his house and was able to see more than one person. From one focal point he saw the José he saw before: rich, cool, popular, unwilling to even give him the time of day. But at the same time, he saw a different José, one that hadn't completely emerged yet. This José was someone who was a Magic Marker, someone who could sublime, someone who fought courageously for the purpose of good.

Someone he could talk to. Someone who'd enjoy talking to him.

Someone who was his friend.

It would take some time, but it would happen. Without a doubt.

Abey suddenly flew from the tree to the porch. "Marvin! Thank goodness you're all right!"

José gasped. "Oh my gosh! That pigeon is--"

"Talking," Courtney interrupted. "Get used to it."

"Come on up to the attic with us," Kirk said. "We have lots to talk about."

The newly completed team of Magic Makers moved upstairs to the attic and gave José every last detail. They also showed him a sample of each of their powers.

"Ever since you guys started this group of yours, I knew there was some reason behind it. I just didn't know what," José said. "But then when Courtney gave me my necklace and I got my magical powers, that was when I knew. Man, this is so incredible," José declared. "I've never even imagined that anything like this even existed. But now I see that it does, and I get to be part of it. It's so awesome. Hey, is there a special name for my power, like Marvin's psycho-whatever-it's called?"

"Just call it PK," Marvin said.

"Yes, there is,” Kirk informed. "It's called sublimation.”

"The power to sublime," Annette read from the open book on the table. "It involves transforming into a separate vapor-like astral form, which enables one to pass through solid matter. The limits of this power vary."

"Limits?" José said. "Oh. I see. I guess that explains why I can't..." He let it hang.

"Can't what?" Kirk inquired.

José stuck his sublimed hand halfway into the wood surface of the table and moved it around freely through its solidity. His hand and arm moved straight through the _Book of Phenomena_ with ease. But it was when his hand met the silver necklace box that it didn't move in so easily. Instead of going through it, his hand pushed the box so that it slid along the table surface.

The others looked at José, puzzled.

"I guess this means I can't 'sublime' through stuff that's metal. I tried other things earlier and it didn't seem to work with anything that was metal. Must be my limit."

"Oh, big deal," Kirk said. "I can only freeze time twice in one hour. And it only lasts a minute each time. One lousy minute!"

"Hey man, don't complain," Marvin said with a smirk. "That's one minute that would otherwise be just an instant."

"Hey guys?" José asked. "Who was that scary lady who was here earlier? The one with the knife?"

"Somebody who'll stay far away from here if she knows what's good for her, that's who," Marvin told him.

"Marissa," Courtney said. "Chumick. Very evil lady."

"Is she still a Chumick?" Annette wanted to know. "She looked like a human."

"No, she's still a Chumick," Abey said. "She's just guised now."

"Guised?" Kirk wondered.

"A guise is something that Chumicks get so that they—” Abey stopped. "Look it up, okay? It's in the book."

"Isn't everything?" Annette commented.

"Stay away from the evil lady," Courtney continued. "She's the enemy. I hope you don't mind that we have an enemy."

"An enemy?" José said. "Then that makes us the superheroes, doesn't it?”

"Magic Makers, as a matter of fact," Marvin said.

"Magic Makers, huh? Nice name."

Kirk looked at his watch. "Well, I think we'd better go now. Oh, and José? This is still a secret, okay? Don't tell anybody. It's just between the five of us. Nobody else."

"Ahem," Abey said.

Kirk said, "Except Abey, that is."

* * *

That night, Marvin lay awake in bed and pondered. It wasn't very settling to know that he'd almost gotten killed that day. It also didn't help knowing that Marissa was out there once again, probably devising some new devious scheme to steal the magic But knowing that the locks had been changed, and that Abey was guarding the attic, and that he had powers he could use to throw Marissa out the nearest window if he needed to, helped to somewhat settle him.

Somewhat.

Nevertheless, Marvin did eventually fall asleep. And when he did, the voice called to him once more in a dream.

"Marvin."

“It’s you. What is it this time? I've already given José the necklace. Well, actually Courtney did, but still--"

"You did as you should have, Marvin. Well done."

"Heh heh. Thanks. I guess. Hey, who are you anyway? Are you some kind of spirit or mystical being? Or are you just some fragment of my subconscious bubbling up and telling the part of my brain that operates the rest of the time what to do?”

"Neither," the voice said. "I am no more mystical than you or any of your friends, but indeed very real."

Marvin considered this for a moment.

"You mean you're a person? A human being? Who? Who are you?"

"You will find out someday. Someday, you and I will meet, Marvin McMagicspell. We will meet one another."

* * *

Marvin awoke, and instantly sat up in bed.

It was morning.

“Come on, Marvin,” Mrs. Mannix said from out in the hallway. “Get up. It’s time to get ready for school.”

Marvin smiled and got out of bed.


End file.
